


The Cupid Tragedy

by pentacupids



Category: Pentagon (Korean Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, BL, Cupids, Fluff, M/M, Romance, an absolute shipfest tbh, no smut trust
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2018-09-14 18:25:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9197822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentacupids/pseuds/pentacupids
Summary: Banished to a high school in the human world as punishment, Cupids Jinho and Hui must now try to repair the love lives of the high school boys they unintentionally ruined. With their powers restricted and poor knowledge of the chaotic hormones of human teenagers, the two are in for an excruciatingly hard time.





	1. I. The Accident

**Author's Note:**

> ~ A brief introduction to the work of Cupids ~  
> \- Every person has unique arrows made for them by the Association  
> \- Every arrow has a predetermined target determined by the Fates  
> \- Once the arrow hits the target, the owner of that arrow will soon fall in love with the target
> 
> To be continued...

Jo Jinho, 145 years old.

He sat at the very top of a skyscraper with his legs dangling off the edge and fluffy brown hair blowing in the wind. It had been a rather easy-going day and most of the Cupids were wrapping up their work. Cupids generally avoided working late into the night because it was harder to aim their arrows properly in the dark. That and dealing with drunk people was a nightmare. Even though he had just finished a big case, Jinho activated another arrow by drawing it out of his quiver and waited for the details to come through his phone from headquarters. He had a feeling he wasn't going to start on it until at least the next day but he was always curious as to who the next arrow belonged to and the target. Some cases were sweet and simple, like childhood friends or work colleagues, but others, not so much. Jinho felt his phone vibrate and he opened up the message

"Jung Wooseok!?" Jinho exclaimed with a big smile on his face. He immediately scrolled across to see the target. 

"YEESSS KINO!" He couldn't contain his excitement as soon as he saw Kino's bright smiling face on his phone.

**_A case of true love occurs when two people have been shot with each other's arrow - a love approved by the Fates. In the event that only one arrow has been shot and not reciprocated, the one-sided love will last until another arrow is created and redirected to a different target._ **

Jinho had shot Kino's arrow at Wooseok, the target, a few years back when they were still in middle school and had been waiting for Wooseok's arrow ever since. It was also during this time that Jinho found out Hyunggu's self-appointed nickname, Kino, which was what he preferred to be known as. Jinho was the type of Cupid to get attached to the humans he was responsible for and he had fondly watched over Kino, worried he would be stuck in a one-sided love with Wooseok for too long. Excited, Jinho wanted to find Kino right away so he can shoot Wooseok's arrow into him. The most difficult part of a Cupid's job is tracking the location of targets. Whilst they are able to track the owners of the arrows, Cupids often have to stalk the owners in order to find out information of their lives by blending in as a human, hoping that they will be able to find the possible location of targets. Luckily for Jinho, he already had access to Kino's location from his previous case.  
  
With the cold breeze brushing against his face, Jinho hopped across the rooftops of the buildings in Seoul and in a matter of seconds, he was standing on top of the high school gymnasium. However, his cheery mood was immediately ruined upon seeing Hui who also happened to be there, most likely for work.  
"Ugh, it's you." Hui and Jinho sneered simultaneously at each other. Lee Hwitaek, or Hui as he liked to be called, was another Cupid assigned to the same district as Jinho. The two weren't very fond of each other, mainly because they competed for the top ranking of Cupids in the district. Hui was a few years younger than Jinho, at 137 years old, but was quite talented in his occupation as a Cupid. Jinho spotted Kino walking right beside Wooseok alongside the outside of the fence which enclosed the sports field. With the romantic evening sky, it was the perfect setting for an arrow to be shot, especially when the target was right next to the owner. _I can't miss this opportunity! I have to shoot the arrow now!_  
  
"I have important business to attend to so I don't have time to deal with you." Jinho said haughtily as he readied his bow and Wooseok's arrow. Hui let out a baffled laugh at Jinho blatantly ignoring him and put his hands on his hips, "Okay, for the record, I'm pretty sure I was here first," A small smirk crept across his face, "or maybe I just didn't see you." Even though he was only of average height himself, Hui was always quick to take a jab at Jinho's short height. Ignoring him, Jinho took a deep breath and drew the arrow back, carefully taking aim at Kino who was slowly walking with a cute unknowing smile on his face. _Steady..._  
"Well, with such bad eyesight, maybe you should consider moving to an easier district." Jinho said sarcastically. He was about to release the arrow when suddenly, Hui popped his head right beside Jinho and startled him.  
"Sorry, what did you say?" Hui said with a blank face. Jinho had already lost his concentration and lowered his bow and arrow. He turned his head and glared at Hui who had a goofy eye smile on his face.  
"I'm warning you, Hui. Don't disturb me right now or you _will_ regret it." Jinho raised his bow up again, ready to take aim at Kino once more. Hui thought about annoying Jinho further but couldn't be bothered and coincidentally, his phone vibrated. _Oh, yeah, I just activated a new arrow..._

_Zero received...zero given...that's a bit...sad._ It was a rare case for people to not have received arrows at all at the age of 18 and it was the first encounter of such a case for Hui. He gazed at Hyojong's photo and smiled. _Boy, I'm about to give you your first love...who is..._ Hui swiped across to see the target but the screen didn't move. He tried swiping his thumb across the screen a second time but again, it was stuck on Hyojong's profile. _Hrm, is my phone broken orWAARRGGHH._ Before he knew it, he landed on the floor and let out a groan of pain. He had accidentally rolled his ankle and fallen over when he took a step forward, too focused on his phone to watch where he was going. It would have been fine if it was only him who fell over but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Beside him was Jinho on his knees and hands, absolutely frozen, with his bow laying on the ground. Realising that he had knocked Jinho over, Hui gulped and could feel a drop of sweat slide down his face from his temple. _Sh*t!_

_Kino!_ Jinho quickly got up from the ground and went over to the ledge. His eyes desperately searched Kino's body for Wooseok's arrow but could not find it. The blood drained from Jinho's face when he saw Wooseok's glowing arrow stuck on the shoulder of a student in a baseball uniform on the field. Having the arrow hit something and bouncing off would have been fine but striking a person who wasn't the target would be the start of an endless headache. Jinho turned back to Hui and glared at him with strained eyes.  
"WHAT THE F*CK DID I SAY ABOUT DISTURBING ME!?" Jinho raged as he charged at Hui. He aggressively grabbed onto Hui's collar and pulled him down so that they were eye-level.  
"Okay, just hold on a second..." Hui already had his hands guiltily up in the air.  
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Jinho snarled.  
"It was an accident!" Hui snapped back with his brows furrowed. Jinho wasn't going to have a word of it and immediately reached into Hui's quiver to take out an arrow before shoving Hui out of the way.  
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. What are you doing?" Hui said, looking on in horror as Jinho roughly wielded the fragile glowing arrow in the air. Hui's jaw dropped to the ground when Jinho angrily snapped the arrow and threw the pieces up into the air. Infused with the rage of a Cupid, the pieces of the arrow scattered across the school grounds. If that wasn't painful enough, a message came through to Hui's phone and he reluctantly checked it to see which pour soul's arrow had been broken by Jinho.

"YAH! ARE YOU INSANE!?" Hui yelled, absolutely fuming. He tackled down Jinho and they ended up grappling each other and rolling around on the top of the gymnasium for a while. It wasn't long before they realised Eunkwang was standing on the ledge, looking down at them with his arms crossed and an unimpressed expression. Despite still holding onto each other's collars, they both had sheepish smiles on their faces, knowing that they were in deep trouble.

➶➶➶

**_Once a person's arrow has struck the target, it is destined that they will meet within the next 24 hours. The person will be undeniably drawn to the target upon seeing them as a result but the strength of the initial attraction will vary between individuals._ **

  
"Wooseok-ah!" Kino cried out with his arm waving in the air and a big grin on his face. He jogged towards Wooseok who was waiting at a bench and smiled apologetically, "Really sorry! Training went for longer than usual."  
"Any longer and I would have left." Wooseok said in his deep voice, towering over Kino as soon as he stood up. Kino couldn't help but let out a chuckle at Wooseok's comment.  
"Thanks for waiting." He reached up to pinch Wooseok's cheek before they went on their way.

Since their parents were close with one another, Kino and Wooseok grew up doing everything together. That was probably the main reason why they could be such good friends despite being quite different to one another in terms of personality. However, things did change slightly when they reached high school. Other students found Wooseok too intimidating to approach because he was a walking giant, even taller than some of the seniors, and seemed to always have a cold gaze. Kino knew he was the opposite of someone intimidating though. Wooseok was actually a bit of a homebody who preferred to watch anime and play video games on weekends instead of going out. Kino, on the other hand, was that crazily perfect guy who just seemed to excel at everything without trying and was adored by all his peers and teachers alike.  
  
Kino had a permanent smile stuck on his face and shyly watched the ground as they were walking. It was his favourite part of the day after all, walking home with Wooseok. When he looked up, Kino noticed a small scratch on Wooseok's left cheek.  
"Did you get into a fight?" Kino frowned, tapping his own cheek. Wooseok was confused at first but quickly, realised Kino was referring to him.  
"Oh this," Wooseok furrowed his eyebrows, a bit disheartened, "a kitten scratched me when I was trying to pick it up this morning."  
Kino tried to keep a straight face but gave in and erupted into bright laughter because it sounded exactly like something Wooseok would do. He dug into his duffel bag and pulled out his wallet which had a band-aid tucked inside.  
"Seriously, you should consider carrying band-aids around with you. You always seem to need one." Kino carefully peeled the plastic off of the band-aid and tapped Wooseok on his arm, telling him to stop walking. Wooseok casually leaned forward so that his face was almost level with Kino's and grinned, "It's alright, you always seem to have some on you." Kino widened his eyes at the sight of Wooseok's face so close to his own and quickly pulled his head back and averted his gaze. There was no way he would be able to sustain eye contact with Wooseok for too long without his cheeks becoming a delicate shade of pink. It had been hard for Kino in the past few years to keep his feelings in check when it came to Wooseok and even though he had little faith that he would actually confess to Wooseok, it became harder not to as the years went by. He hastily placed the band-aid over the scratch on Wooseok's face and hurriedly walked off to calm down whilst zipping up his duffel bag on the side. He was about to ask about Wooseok's day when he realised Wooseok hadn't moved and was still standing where he had stopped, this time with his hands in his pockets and looking past the fence.

"The guys on the baseball team are pretty crazy. They train so late into the night." Kino said as he joined Wooseok in watching the baseball team do their drills in their dirtied uniform on the fields. He then glanced to his side and noticed Wooseok had a strange look in his eyes. It was as if he was bewitched by something and couldn't take his eyes off of it.  
"What are you looking at so seriously? Do you know someone?" Kino asked with his head tilted. Wooseok suddenly cleared and coolly walked off without saying a word and Kino followed behind him, mildly confused but greatly curious.

➶➶➶


	2. II. The Classmates

In an office that was blindingly white, Eunkwang examined the documents in front of him whilst sipping on his hot Earl Grey tea.   
“These idiots, for the millionth time…” He uttered under his breath before reading the names on the case file out loud, “Jo Jinho. Lee Hwitaek.”    
The doors automatically opened and in came the troublemakers looking disgruntled after having waited with each other for over an hour outside of Eunkwang’s office. Eunkwang was the senior Cupid in charge of a great portion of districts in South Korea, including the one Jinho and Hui were assigned to. Whilst the two were some of the most skilled Cupids under his command, they were also the most troublesome due to their short tempers.    
“Ah, my two favourite Cupids. You both know why you've been summoned, correct?” He said with a fake smile, the type that made you wish you could turn back time to undo your mistake.   
“Yes but…” Hui couldn’t hold back his devilish smirk any longer, “you know we can’t take you seriously when you’re wearing that.” Eunkwang was wearing the traditional Cupids outfit which we have grown accustomed to seeing - a classic white tunic with brown Roman sandals. He loved wearing it to flaunt his seniority over the other Cupids but almost no one else in the Association did because it was uncomfortable and impractical for doing field work.  
“We don’t even have an official uniform...” Jinho added quietly.  Eunkwang narrowed his eyes at them, unable to comprehend how they could remain so brazen despite being in trouble.  
“Boys, is it so hard to stay out of trouble? There’s only so many warnings I can give you before the Association becomes aware of the havoc you two create.” Eunkwang sternly told them.   
“He started it.” Jinho shamelessly pointed at Hui right away.  
“Okay for last time, I said it was an accident. AC-CI-DENT. Do you even know what that means?” Hui argued back.   
“Yes but you clearly don’t since you keep insisting it was one.”  
“Are you calling me a liar?”   
“I didn’t say that but since you said it yourself - ”  
Eunkwang had had enough of their quarrel and cleared very loudly to interrupt them. After getting their attention again, he snapped his fingers in the air and two neat piles of clothing appeared on top of his desk and he said, “These are yours.”   
Hui was quick to unravel the pile of clothes which turned out to be a high school uniform and then unfolded Jinho’s pile as well which was exactly the same. He dramatically  slammed his hands on Eunkwang’s wooden desk yelling “This is outrageous!” and pointed to Jinho, “Shouldn’t he be getting an elementary school uniform!?”  
“Seriously Hui? That’s your concern? Seriously?” Jinho side-eyed Hui and then walked forward to lean over Eunkwang’s desk slightly.  
“Eunkwang,” A strained smile made it’s way across Jinho’s face, “Sir, what’s the meaning behind this?” He was desperately hoping it was not what he thought it was going to be.   
“The Disciplinary Committee has ordered that you two be banished to the human world as punishment for your repeat offences.” Eunkwang replied bluntly. He could see the life drain from the boys’ faces and sighed, “I don’t make the rules, boys. These are official orders from above.” Eunkwang went on to read the scroll in front of him that elaborated on the terms and conditions of their punishment. They were to be stripped of their Cupid duties and to remain in human form for the length of a year, disguised as high school students. During this period, the two were to reflect on the consequences of their actions as well as restore the order which they had disrupted. Hui scrunched his face up, clearly confused, “Restore the order? What the Heavens does that mean?”   
“Well, you guys will have to work together to figure that out, won’t you?” Eunkwang raised his brow as if it was an obvious answer. It was undeniable that part of the punishment involved them cooperating with each other and that really was considered the cherry on top. With the official terms of the punishment announced, the two remained silent with hardened expressions. Eunkwang had a smile on his face too sinister for a Cupid to wear and leaned back into his white swivel chair, “School starts tomorrow, boys. Good luck.”   
  
They were both convinced that Eunkwang was finding amusement out of their inevitable despair.  
  
~  
  
Despite the next day being a gorgeous day with the sun out and clear blue skies, it did little to help the grumpy Cupids facing their reality. Hui and Jinho stared each other down whilst standing right in front of the school gates, somehow ignoring the fact that the other students were walking past them with curious gazes and were whispering amongst themselves. Hui wore a grey hoodie underneath their navy school blazer and white Converse shoes whilst Jinho properly wore the uniform with no alterations, looking quite prim and proper.  
“Wow, a hoodie under your blazer. So edgy of you, Hui.” Jinho smirked.  
“Yeah, well at least I don’t look like a mama’s boy.”   
Even if they were about to step into unknown territory, it wouldn’t stop them from the usual banter. The school bell rang, signalling the start of school day and their misery. Hui squatted on the ground and furiously scratched his head as he let out a frustrated cry. He suddenly stood up and started walking away from the gates whilst angrily mumbling, “I can’t do this. This is absolutely ridiculous. I’m going back even if it means being banished to Hell, at least I have some friends there.”   
Fed up with his complaints, Jinho grabbed the back of Hui’s hood and pulled him along into the school. There was no way he was going to endure this punishment alone.   
  
The Association had taken care of their enrolments in a way that avoided any suspicions from humans. They were classified as transfer students in their 3rd year of high school and the two couldn’t be more relieved to find out they were to be split into different classes. Once the paperwork was finalised in the school office, they were individually directed to their classrooms to meet their peers which was probably the part they dreaded the most.   
  
Jinho walked into his classroom, a bit nervous from being in the spotlight at the front of the class with all eyes glued on him. He definitely preferred to be in his Cupid form where he was invisible to humans. _Stay calm Jinho, they’re just humans, they’re no different from you..._  
“Hello, I’m Jo Jinho. It’s nice to meet you all. I hope we can have a good year together.” Jinho said quietly whilst fidgeting with his fingers. Whispers were rapidly exchanged between the students in the class and unluckily for Jinho, he could hear it all too clearly. Not that it was anything he didn’t already expect anyway.  
 _“Oh my god, he’s so cute.”_  
 _“He’s so small....”_  
 _“Wow, he’s really short for a guy…”_  
 _“How tall do you reckon he is? 5’2"?”  
_ “I’m actually 5’5".” Jinho accidentally said aloud directly to the girl right in front of him who was mortified. His unusual outburst unexpectedly caused a stir of laughter in the classroom and he was promptly directed to his seat at the back of the room near the windows.   
  
They were barely 5 minutes into class and Jinho was already distracted and busy daydreaming with his chin resting on the palm of his small hand. It was probably even more annoying for him to watch other Cupids still out and about shooting arrows all whilst he was stuck in a boring classroom. _I can’t believe this is actually happening to me…_ Snapping himself out of his daze, Jinho straightened up and then looked around his classroom to see if there were any arrows still visible on people out of interest. Whilst his eyes were wandering, he ended up making eye contact with the guy who sat on the desk next to him. The guy had glowing tanned skin and had chocolate brown hair with a fringe that would have covered his eyes if not for the glass frames he had on. Jinho was caught off guard when the guy suddenly smiled at him before looking away to the front.   
  
~  
  
“Go ahead and introduce yourself.” The homeroom teacher warmly smiled at Hui who was not the least bit interested in doing so. _Kill me now..._  
“Greetings fellow humans, please call me Hui.” He said rather curtly with his hands in pockets of his pants. He barely bowed to the class because he couldn’t care less about what they would think of him and was more interested in figuring out how to get out of there. His eyes naturally glossed over the sea of heads and then he unexpectedly froze up when he saw the students sitting in the front row. _You have got to be kidding me…_   
  


* * *

**6 months ago**

* * *

Hui had disguised himself as a businessman in a suit just casually sitting by a corner with a plate of cake and a cup of coffee. On the table right across from him was the owner of the new arrow he had just activated.

  
Hui ended up at the cafe when he was following Yan An who had just finished school. Having had office romance cases for the last 3 arrows, a romance involving high school students seemed like a breath of fresh air to Hui, even though it wasn’t exactly his forte. For his style of investigation, high schools were generally more difficult because it was harder to infiltrate as a human without raising suspicion. He mentally read through the notes he had scribbled down on a napkin. Y _an An. 17 years old, 3rd year high school student. Originally from Shanghai, China but came to Seoul, South Korea when he was in middle school. The first arrow was shot back in Shanghai when he was 14 years old. This will be his second arrow._  
  
Hui impatiently tapped his fingers on the table as he watched Yan An play on his phone whilst simultaneously sipping on his large-sized frappe. _Well, it’s not like I know he’s meeting someone for sure…_ Suddenly, a tall slender guy wearing the same uniform as Yan An made a grand entrance into the Cafe and strolled over to where Yan An was sitting. The guy pulled down his face mask to his chin, which revealed his prominent cheekbones and charismatic smile, and greeted Yan An. Hui quickly swiped across his phone to check the target’s photo again.

Aaaaand nope, that’s not him. Hui casually took a sip of his coffee and used his powers to amplify his listening so that he could eavesdrop on their conversation.  
“Sooooo...have you decided?” The guy asked with anticipation  
“Yeah, I’ll sign the contract.” Yan An said albeit rather reluctantly. The handsome guy grinned widely and pounced on Yan An to hug him before putting him in a headlock and playfully ruffling his hair despite Yan An’s cute protest.  
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down!” The guy exclaimed.   
“Shinwon, get off me!” Yan An whined, trying his best to escape his friend’s arm. With a jovial laugh, the guy named Shinwon let Yan An go and took a quick sip from Yan An’s drink before saying, “My manager is going to be so happy once she hears the news.” He then cupped Yan An’s soft cheeks with his hands and smiled, “I’ll look after you, don’t worry.”   
Hui continued to listen in on their conversation as he munched on his cake but found nothing useful. He couldn't even decipher what contract it was that Yan An had signed because they were being so cryptic about it. After a few more minutes of sitting there, Hui gave in and decided to leave. _Looks like I can’t avoid it...I’ll have to go to the high school..._  
  
And Hui did exactly that. The very next day, he tailed Yan An all the way to the high school and then disguised himself as a janitor to buy himself enough time to follow Yan An to his classroom. He actually felt irritated when he caught sight of the target, Yeo Changgu, sitting a few seats away from Yan An in the same room.  
“Seriously, they’re in the same bloody class. I should have just come here in the first place.” Hui grumbled to himself. He quickly got back into his Cupid form so that he was invisible and stood right in front of Changgu’s desk.  
“Target acquired.” Hui said under his breath as he raised his bow up with Yan An’s arrow ready and aimed it at the unsuspecting Changgu who was busy writing notes down. It’s important to note humans don’t feel anything when arrows strike them and that the arrows maintain a physical form for up to 10 days after hitting the target before disappearing. With the arrow nocked, Hui aimed it at Changgu’s forehead and instantly released it.   
“Headshot.” Hui grinned widely, glad another case was complete.   
  


* * *

* * *

  
Hui was legitimately shocked to see Changgu and Yan An sitting right in front of him. Oh god, get me out of here. Yan An sat in the front row in the seat nearest to the windows and Changgu sat on the desk beside him.  
“You can take the seat behind Changgu there.” The teacher said, pointing to what would be his new desk. _Woman,_ _I really do not want to do that._ Hui stood still for so long, the teacher thought he was being shy and gave him a little push in the right direction. _I’m sure I can ignore them..._

_WHAT     THE       F*CK      IS       THAT._   
  


As soon as Hui sat down in his seat, his eyes were immediately drawn to what looked like a snapped arrow lodged into the middle of Yan An’s back. Hui had never seen such a thing before in his entire career as a Cupid and was greatly bewildered. The glow was dim compared to how bright full arrows were but it was nonetheless there. _That’s definitely a Cupid’s arrow...why is it like that?_ Throughout the entire class, Hui couldn’t help but occasionally glance up at Yan An’s back to see if the arrow was still there. _This is a bizarre case... I should contact Eunkwang about this…_ He didn’t notice it before but in the seat on his left and behind Yan An was a guy whose head had been facing down and resting in his arms the entire. _Is that guy going to sleep throughout the whole class…?_

  
~  
  
During their long lunch break, Changgu turned around on his chair and waved at Hui with a blinding smile. Some Cupids took an interest into investigating the backgrounds of targets as well as the owner before shooting arrows but Hui wasn’t one of them.  He knew nothing about Changgu from six months ago apart from the fact that he was the target for Yan An’s arrow.  
“Looks like we’re desk neighbours,” Changgu said enthusiastically, “I’m Yeo Changgu. Hui, right?” He held his hand out in front of Hui. _Okay, does this guy just have a smile permanently stuck on his face?_  
“Yeah...that’s right.” Hui hesitantly shook Changgu’s hand because he was still too weirded out. He was the type of Cupid who didn’t like seeing humans he had dealt with in the past. It was to prevent him from knowing what had happened to them after he had successfully shot the arrows and completed his cases. It’s not like he didn’t wish them happiness but he personally  found it frustrating to witness one-sided love so preferred not to know at all.  
“Did you want to go explore the school grounds?” Changgu said with a bright expression.   
“No, not particularly…” Hui averted his gaze, wishing he would be left alone. Changgu let out a chuckle and got up from his seat to walk over to Hui’s desk.   
“Don’t be shy! We’re all friends here. Come on, I’ll show you around.” Changgu patted Hui’s back and even grabbed onto his arm to pull him up. _Get off me human…_ Hui firmly grasped  Changgu’s wrist and pulled it off of his own arm.  
“I’m quite alright.” Hui warned, followed by a hostile smile.  
  
 **“Pew pew pew.”**  
  
Both Hui and Changgu turned their heads towards the person making the gun shot noises. The guy who had been sleeping behind Yan An was now well awake and looking at them with a sly smile on his face.  
“What do you want, Shinwon?” Changgu said with a look of disdain.   
“Oh nothing, I just found it funny that you were shot down by the new kid, Mr. Class President.” Shinwon mockingly winked at him. Whilst Shinwon and Changgu got into a quarrel, Hui was at his desk having a mental breakdown at the unexpected variable that was Ko Shinwon. _And what is HE doing here?_ Hui remembered very clearly the error that appeared on Shinwon’s profile and could not ignore the guilt that stabbed at him. Amongst the chaos that erupted, Hui noticed Yan An was keeping to himself, hunched over his desk whilst quietly munching on a steamed bun. _That kid’s unexpectedly quiet for someone who is somehow friends with this idiot here and is in love with this other idiot...oh okay, I can see how that’s a problem...unless…_ Hui frowned at the thought that it was perhaps an ongoing case of one-sided love. He turned his attention to Shinwon who was childishly poking his tongue out at Changgu for whatever reason. _Ko Shinwon...Arrows Given...Error…_   
After making Changgu storm out of the room, Shinwon noticed Hui blankly staring at him and tilted his head to the side.  
“Too stunned by my good looks, new kid?” A smug smirk crept across his face.  
  
 _This class is an absolute nightmare._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realised that the scale of this story is so big, I'm still just laying the groundwork hahaha...so many ships to sail and sink. I'll work hard so stay tuned.  
> Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments because I love reading them! :)


	3. III. The Broken

During a lunch break, Jinho went outside to get a cold drink from the vending machines. He was already used to all the glances and whispering that occurred wherever he went and ignored it as best he could. _Is being short a crime? Geez…_ He probably wasn’t aware that the glances from both girls and guys were also due to him having such a cute face, not aware he was over a century old. He poked the straw into the drink and sat down on a bench near the vending machine. Even though it was only his first week at school, Jinho couldn’t help but feel a bit lonely, sad that he didn’t have any friends to spend his breaks with. The thought of finding Hui had even crossed his mind but he quickly dismissed it, thinking he’d rather be alone than have to deal with that obnoxious guy. Jinho knew he was too shy for his own good when he was around humans but couldn’t help it even if he was ‘one of them’ for the time being.  
  
Jinho’s eyes literally sparkled when he saw Wooseok and Kino walking towards him. Things were different now that he was seeing his favourite humans as a fellow student and not a Cupid. The two of them stopped at the vending machine Jinho was sitting beside and stood around, chatting away whilst choosing their drinks. Jinho thought Kino was even more beautiful up close with his glowing skin, teethy smile and big glossy eyes whilst Wooseok seemed to have grown taller but had the same aloof but alluring aura to him. It was a bitter moment for Jinho when the two walked right past him with their drinks without even a glance. Whilst he might have known almost everything about the two boys, there was no way they would have ever seen Jinho in their lives. He let out a short sigh and looked down at the ground as he childishly kicked his legs, his feet barely scraping the ground beneath him.  
  
 _Restore the order...._ He thought about the meaning behind the phrase in great detail. _I shot Kino’s arrow at Wooseok a few years ago and recently received Wooseok’s arrow with Kino as the target which would make it a case of true love._ He then remembered the exact moment he was knocked over by Hui and the devastating sight of the arrow being released into the air. Jinho took a deep breath to calm down, fighting the urge to go find Hui and tackle him. _But the arrow went off course and hit another student. Hrmm…_ He briefly glanced back at Kino and Wooseok but was greatly disturbed by what he saw and jumped off the bench.  
“WAIT!” He cried out without thinking, mentally cursing himself as soon as he saw the both of them stop and turn around to see who the strange person that called out to them was. All they could see was a short guy they couldn’t recognise standing before them with an exasperated expression.  
“Do you know him?” Wooseok asked very discreetly, unable to take his eyes off Jinho who he thought was probably two heads shorter than him. Kino shook his head in response with a confused face and then looked at Jinho.  
“Is everything okay?” Kino warmly smiled. At this point, Jinho desperately wished his powers were at full strength so that he could erase their memories. Instead, all he could do was cutely shake his head and wave his hands in the air, extremely flustered. He didn’t understand why he was so nervous to interact with Kino and Wooseok.   
“Sorry, I must have mistook you for someone.” Jinho said, a futile attempt to save himself.  
“Oh, that’s alright.” Kino returned with an understanding nod. He then glanced up at Wooseok and nudged him on the side with his elbow, “Wooseok, stop glaring at him like that.”   
“I wasn’t even glaring…” Wooseok grumbled and walked off first with Kino giggling and following behind him. Jinho watched the two of them continue on their way but not without a concerned look on his face. _My eyes aren’t playing games on me…_ Sticking out the back of Kino’s left shoulder was definitely a broken arrow that was still glowing.  
  
~  
  
After their weird encounter, Wooseok looked down at Kino who seemed to be enjoying his drink as they were walking back to class. He decided to slow down and lowered his head, causing Kino to pull himself away slightly, “What’s wrong?” Kino questioned. Wooseok took Kino by surprise when he parted his lips slightly and leaned forward. He chomped on the straw of Kino’s drink and started drinking it without permission. He then looked at Kino directly into his eyes and pouted, “I have drink envy.”   
“Well too bad, you’ll have to stick to your boring orange juice.” Kino pulled his drink away and returned to sipping on his tea drink, trying to ignore the silly fact that it was an indirect kiss. All of a sudden, Wooseok snatched the drink off of Kino and raised his arm up into the air, a territory well out of Kino’s reach. He teased his friend by dangling the drink around, chuckling as Kino made futile attempts to get it off him. _Not in a million years!_ He found it cute that Kino kept trying by jumping up and down even though it was near impossible. Whilst Wooseok was putting on a haughty front by yawning and purposely not looking at Kino, his eyes somehow spotted something else that was more interesting on the second floor. _It’s him..._   
“Hey, give it...back.” The words trailed off of Kino’s lips when he realised Wooseok wasn’t even listening, his attention elsewhere. Kino immediately decided to jab Wooseok in the stomach with his hand, forcing Wooseok’s body to curl up and lower his long limbs, and then snatched his drink back. Wooseok held his stomach and looked at Kino, highly irritated.   
“You asked for it.” Kino backed away and loudly slurped on his straw in front of his injured friend. In his moment of petty triumph, he realised Wooseok was still distracted, his eyes desperately wandering and searching around. Kino could only hope it wasn’t for someone else.   
  
~  
  
 **Jinho:** meet me behind the library after school  
  
“Ugh, what does this guy want?” Hui mumbled to himself. Cupids in the same district automatically had each other’s phone numbers saved into their phones. Otherwise, it wasn’t likely that Jinho and Hui would have their numbers voluntarily saved. Changgu diligently turned around and looked at Hui, “Is someone bothering you?”  
“No…” Hui slowly put his phone faced down onto the table and subtly rolled his eyes. It really irked him that Changgu was so insistent on becoming friends with him despite him showing no intention of doing so. He had come to conclusion that the guy was either a very stubborn or an awfully oblivious person.  
“Geez, get a clue, Changgu. The new kid is not interested in being buddy-buddy with you.” Shinwon chimed in from his seat. Changgu glared at him and turned back around to face the front. The only thing Hui liked about Shinwon was how blunt he was about everything. Other than that, he thought the guy was too up himself and was tiring to be around. The bell signalling the end of the day rang and all the students were quick to pack up so they could be the first out of the class.  
  
With his backpack slung over one shoulder, Hui approached Jinho who was sitting on the steps behind the library by himself. He really did look tiny compared to even high school students.   
“What’d you call me out for? Got too lonely?” Hui said in a hostile tone.  
“Trust me, I wouldn’t have asked to meet if it wasn’t important.” Jinho snapped back. He then took a deep breath to become more serious, “Have you come across broken arrows before?” The mention of them immediately had Hui’s full attention.  
“Yeah, I have actually. A kid in my class has one in his back.” Hui revealed, thinking it was not a mere coincidence that the topic was brought up. His response caught Jinho off guard who didn’t expect there to be another case.   
“In your class? So there are two cases…” He knew that Kino was in the year level below them so there was no way he was in Hui’s class.  
“Two!?” Hui exclaimed with an arched brow.  
“Yeah, it’s really strange. I don’t know what it means either…”  
Out of nowhere, they heard someone yell out “HUI!!! SEE YOU TOMORROW!” from across the street and it turned out to be Changgu who was excessively waving his hand in the air with the brightest smile on his face.  
“Godf*ckingdammit…” Hui muttered as he tried looking away, somewhat embarrassed.  
“Oh, it’s Changgu. I forgot he goes to this school.” Jinho said casually without batting an eyelid, not aware that Hui would have a violent reaction.  
“Yeah...wait what!? How do you know him?”   
“I shot his arrow 3 months ago...”   
_3 MONTHS AGO!?_ Hui was going to have a mental breakdown on the spot. _Wait, wait, wait…_ “Who was the target? Is it someone in this school?” He asked impatiently. Jinho scrunched up his face, hesitant to answer because Hui was being too demanding. Coincidentally, the target was heading their way and Jinho lifted his arm to point, “That one there.” Hui turned around towards where Jinho was pointing and saw Shinwon and Yan An walking alongside each other. Shinwon was mucking around by poking Yan An’s soft cheeks and then running away, bursting into laughter at Yan An’s cute tantrum.  
“Yan An.” Jinho added for confirmation. He glanced over to Hui who looked like his soul had left his body. _Okay, so that means they’ve already been shot with each other’s arrows…_ Hui could feel his blood boiling, fuelled with immense irritation. _AND THEY’VE LITERALLY BEEN TOO SHY TO INITIATE ANYTHING WITH EACH OTHER._   
“Dense motherf*ckers!” He yelled out without context, making Jinho flinch. Shinwon and Yan An also looked at him strangely as they slowly walked by and it was also at that moment that Jinho saw the broken arrow lodged in Yan An’s back. _What on Earth is going on?_  
  
~  
  
On the other side of the school was one Jung Wooseok sitting by himself playing on his DS. However, unlike other times, Wooseok sat on a bench inside the fences on the field, which were made for spectators, to wait for Kino. He’d occasionally look up to see what the baseball team were doing and then return his attention to the game he was playing. Well, to be more specific, he was really only watching one person from afar as he had no interest in baseball or sports in general. I wonder when Kino will be done… In the midst of his game, Wooseok felt something hit his foot so he looked down to see a baseball. As soon as he picked it up, there was already someone standing in front of him bent over with their hands on their knees.  
“Sorry about that!” The guy apologised whilst straightening up, out of breath from running over. Wooseok was starstruck as soon as he saw the guy and awkwardly stood up as well, casting his DS aside onto the bench. It was the guy he had been watching the whole time, standing right in front of him. Now that they were closer to each other, Wooseok was surprised that the guy was not that much shorter than him and had a slim yet athletic frame. He simply could not keep his eyes off of the guy and the only thing that managed to snap him out of his daze was the guy letting out a nervous laugh. Wooseok realised he had been firmly holding onto the baseball and clumsily handed it over.   
“Thank you!” The guy said with a quick bow and put the ball into the palm of his glove. His eyes casually glanced at the screen of Wooseok’s DS on the bench which prompted a smile.  
“Good luck with that quest. It’s a lot harder than it seems.” The guy chuckled knowingly. Wooseok was still so stunned by the sight of the guy that everything else was a blur and he didn’t even hear what the guy said. _His smile is really cute…_   
“What’s your name?” The words forced their way out of Wooseok who knew he wasn’t being himself.   
“Eh? My name?” The guy pointed to himself, innocently blinking at the sudden question, “It’s Yuto.” He replied in his deep voice, followed by a charmed grin.

  
  


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**Author's message:**  
Adachi Yuto!!! Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter because there's lots more to come. It may be a bit slow-paced for some people so I do apologise but that's just my style hahaha. I like to develop things carefully and with thought.   
Do remember to upvote and comment! What do you think of the developments? I'm just so curious . >///<  
See you soon! :)


	4. IV. The Beginning

The discovery of two broken arrows remained on the back of Jinho and Hui’s minds as they continued to struggle through the first few days of being humans. Whilst Jinho was actively thinking about the explanation behind the occurrence, Hui was focused on another issue.  
  
During an English class, he spent the entirety of his time watching Changgu and Yan An who conveniently sat in front of him. Yan An would occasionally sneak glances at Changgu with adoring eyes from the side but would quickly look away when Changgu moved even the slightest. Changgu did the exact same, admiring Yan An from his own seat but shying away every time it seemed Yan An was going to look up. They were a classic example of the type of cases Cupids hated coming across the most. Whilst the Cupids’ arrow control the direction and flow of love, they don’t have much power over the individuals themselves. The potency of arrows may be undeniably strong but sometimes, the personality of individuals overruled any effects which in turn made the jobs of Cupids more difficult. Hui was probably getting pissed because _both_ Yan An and Changgu were resisting the powers of the arrows.  
  
Half-way through the class, Hui got so frustrated watching them that he used his powers to knock Yan An’s eraser off of his table with a wave of his index finger. Changgu naturally bent over his seat to pick up the eraser but got flustered when he met eyes with Yan An as he handed back the eraser. They both hastily returned their attention to the front, not daring to look at each other. Hui pinched the bridge of his nose out of frustration and hummed miserably. _Someone kill me now._  
  
~  
  
Hui ducked out of the classroom during their lunch break, adamant on eating by himself. Being in a classroom for so long would understandably be suffocating for a Cupid used to roaming around in the open. He stared at the convenience store kimbap he had bought in the morning and was already starting to feel sick. Human bodies consumed a lot more food than Cupids so whilst he constantly felt hungry as a human, his appetite for food remained the same. Disgruntled, he forced himself to take a bite and reluctantly chewed as if it was the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted. His chewing slowed down as soon as he saw Changgu almost skipping over with the usual bright smile. _Please don’t come over here, please don’t come over here, please leave me alone…_ And as Hui had feared, Changgu sat right beside him and made himself comfortable on the grass.  
“You should have told me you were going to eat outside,” Changgu beamed as he opened his lunch box which made Hui want to gag because it was filled to the brim with food. Quite oblivious to Hui’s disgust, Changgu brought his lunch box closer to Hui’s face and asked if he wanted some with the kindest of intentions only to have him violently shove it out of the way with his arm, spilling half of the contents onto the ground. The class president sadly retracted his now half-empty lunch box placed it on his lap with a sad pout. He genuinely wanted to befriend Hui, worried that he would not feel welcomed in a new school for his final year. Hui watched Changgu quietly eat what was left of his lunch with guilt. _Troublesome humans..._  
“So the weather is really nice today,” Changgu forced a laugh, “it’s a good day for eating outside.”  
“Yeah…” Hui rolled his eyes, uncomfortable with the setting. Though, he had to admit, he was impressed by Changgu’s thick skin and persistence. With impeccable timing, Shinwon sneaked up behind Hui and pounced onto him. He had spotted the two from afar and his urge to interfere was far too great.  
“Oooohhh, what do we have here?” Shinwon casually grabbed a small sausage from Changgu’s lunch box and popped it into .  
“Yah!” Changgu barked, pulling his lunch box away to the side. A sly and satisfied smile made its way across Shinwon’s face. There was just something about about annoying Changgu that amused him greatly.  
“Yan An! Over here!” Shinwon yelled out with bits of food flying out of as he waved his arm in the air. Yan An stiffly walked over, absolutely conscious of Changgu and sat down next to the boisterous Shinwon.  
“Why are we sitting outside today…?” Yan An asked Shinwon quietly, his eyes obviously resisting the urge at the cute guy who sat across him.  
“Because our friends are here.” Shinwon ruffled Hui’s hair from behind, knowing it would annoy him. He was probably lucky Hui had his powers restricted otherwise he wouldn’t be able to get away with touching a irritable Cupid so easily. For the next couple of minutes, Shinwon was the one busy chatting away, mainly probing Hui with an onslaught of personal questions. However, in addition to ignoring the questions, Hui was busy observing the two destined for each other who were nibbling on their lunch quietly. The only interaction they had was when Yan An was sharing his mini steamed buns with everyone.  
“Shinwon, come with me.” Hui unexpectedly grabbed the back of Shinwon’s blazer as he stood up and dragged him away.  
“What? Where are we going?” Shinwon protested, tangling himself up because he was twisting and turning as Hui kept walking.  
“The bathroom.”  
“The bathroom!? Why are you dragging me to the bathroom?” Shinwon continued to complain. When the two were gone, Yan An and Changgu looked at each other for a millisecond before looking elsewhere - Changgu showing sudden interest in his fork and Yan An being fascinated by the grass. There could only be so much awkward silence between them until they were forced to acknowledge each other’s presence.  
“Um…” The two said simultaneously and froze up.  
_I’m alone with Yan An but I can’t find anything to say. Why is this so hard?_  
                                I wish I could talk with Changgu normally...  
“Your buns are really nice.” Changgu blurted out.  
“My what!?” Yan An exclaimed with a shocked expression, wondering why on Earth Changgu mentioned buns all of a sudden.  
“Your buns! Um, I mean your steamed buns! They're delicious!” Changgu grabbed a steaming hot bun with his bare hands to show Yan An only to play hot potato with it and let it drop back into his lunch box because it was too hot. He pinched his earlobes to cool down his fingers and bashfully smiled at Yan An who had watched the entire ordeal. _I’m such an idiot…_  
Yan An chuckled, keeping to himself that he thought Changgu getting so flustered was the cutest thing he had ever seen.  
“Thank you. I made them myself.” Yan An shyly said, hoping Changgu wouldn’t see his cheeks becoming increasingly pink because he was awful at receiving compliments. Especially if it came from someone like Changgu.  
“Really!?” Changgu beamed with his eyes lit up, “That’s so cool.”  
“If you want…” Yan An couldn’t handle Changgu staring at him so he nervously averted his gaze, “I can make some for you...some time…” Changgu was undeniably ecstatic by Yan An’s offer but wanted to hide it in case Yan An found it weird.  
“Yeah...I’d love that.” He sweetly giggled.  
  
There was a lull in the conversation after that and whilst this was probably the most the two have ever spoken to each other, they couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of excitement.  
  
~  
  
From the second floor, Jinho was watching Hui with envy, thinking he was happily spending his lunch break with ‘friends’ when in reality, he was involuntarily being surrounded by his annoying classmates. Unlike Hui, Jinho actually didn’t mind the thought of making human friends because he had always been fascinated with them and yet, approaching them himself seemed like a daunting task. Jinho broke away from the window and headed towards the library of the school where the lonely seemed to spend their time to escape through a novel or study. He walked through the aisles which towered over him in search for a book and after a while, he spotted one which piqued his interest on the very top shelf. His expression darkened when he slowly lifted his arm up, realising he was not going to be able to reach the book. _Well, this is embarrassing._ Jinho was already on the tip of his toes and even with with arms stretched out, the ends of his fingers barely scraped the book. He was about to give up and resort to using his powers to move the book when an arm reach out from behind him and grabbed it. Startled, Jinho took a step back and bumped into the person standing behind him. He then cluelessly spun around like a puppy and his eyes naturally scanned up from the chest of the person to their face.  
“Oh, you’re…” Jinho became tongue-tied. He definitely recognised the guy because their desks were next to each other but he realised he didn’t have a name to the face. The guy didn’t particularly stand out in the class, mainly because he kept to himself and only really spoke when the teacher asked him something. _He smells really nice..._  
“Hongseok.” The guy smiled, showing his pearly white teeth which particularly stood out against his beautiful tanned skin. Jinho was suddenly aware of how close they were standing to each other and again moved back only to be stopped by the shelf behind him. Hongseok glanced down at the book and raised his brow slightly, “You have interesting taste.” With a smirk on his face, he handed the book over to Jinho who cluelessly took it.  
“Thank you.” Jinho said quietly and hugged the book against his chest, a tad intimidated by Hongseok’s height.  
“You’re welcome.” Hongseok said before continuing on his way. His smile left a deep impression on Jinho who unconsciously watched him walk away.  
“ _You have interesting taste…_ ” Jinho repeated Hongseok’s words under his breath and then looked down at the front cover of the book.

**THE MATING HABITS OF GORILLAS  
BY SEO EUNKWANG**

~  
  
“Come on...pick up…” All Hui could hear was the phone dialling on the other end. He was up upon the rooftop of the school’s main building, skipping his late afternoon class as he pleased.  
_“Hello, you’ve called Eunkwang. Sorry I couldn’t take your call. Please leave your name and message and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Unless your name is Hui, in which case, stop calling me.”_  
Hui looked at the sky with his arms to his side and yelled, “PICK UP YOUR DAMN PHONE, OLD MAN!” He gripped onto his phone too tightly which caused it to slip out of his hand. _Sh*t!_ At the last second, Hui used his powers out of reflex to stop the phone from hitting the ground and made it shakily float in the air.  
**“Woooaahhh…”**  
Hui turned his head towards the direction of the voice, losing his concentration and dropping the phone onto the ground in the process. The voice came from the roof of the shed in the corner and Hui wasn’t pleased upon seeing the person’s face. It was undeniably the same Hyojong whose arrow he had activated a few days ago even though Hyojong was no longer blonde but instead had brown caramel coloured hair. Unfortunately, it was rare for arrows to be transferred between Cupids so Hui knew Hyojong’s arrow would have to remain unshot until his year-long punishment period was over. _What luck I have to run into you here..._  
“Was that magic?” Hyojong exclaimed with a child-like curiosity. Hui’s eyes rapidly shot from side to side as he tried to figure out how to respond.  
“Um...yeah, you can say that.” Hui replied in the most unconvincing tone. Hyojong crawled over to the edge of the shed he was on and sat cross-legged. He played with the lollipop in and Hui’s keen hearing picked up the music that was softly playing through his headphones which wrapped around his neck. His small frame surprised Hui who had imagined him to be a lot bigger.  
“That’s so cool!” Hyojong’s thin lips curled into a wide smile, his eyes full of excitement. Being the cynic that he was, Hui wasn’t sure if Hyojong was being serious or sarcastic and was leaning towards the latter. _Is he a 3rd year?_  
“Kim Hyojong. 3rd year.” Hyojong grinned from ear to ear at Hui who in return furrowed his brows, wondering if Hyojong had read his mind, “You had a look on your face.” Hyojong added, further creeping Hui out with his keen observation skills.  
“You’re new to this school right?” Hyojong asked him to which he slowly nodded, still thoroughly weirded out.   
“Nothing escapes me,” Hyojong looked into the distant with soulless eyes and let out the long dreary sigh, “except maybe supernatural stuff. Do you believe in ghosts?”  
“No…” Hui lied. Countless ghosts wandered the streets of Seoul and he was even friends with a few of them. _Do they only accept weird people into this school…?_  
“That’s a shame.” For a second, Hyojong seemed to be disappointed but he was quick to recover and perk up, “Do you want to hear some ghost stories then?”    
“No…”  
“Are you sure? I know some really...good...stories…”  
All of a sudden, Hyojong’s body started swaying and his eyes flickered before closing completely. As soon as Hui saw Hyojong falling forward off the edge, he ran over in a flash, just in time to catch Hyojong before heavily crashing into the door of the shed. Concerned, Hui looked down to check on Hyojong who seemed to be unconscious. That was until Hyojong opened his eyes, completely unfazed by what had just happened, and started staring at Hui with a cheeky grin pasted on his face.  
“Aw, I was hoping you’d make me float.” The listless boy calmly said whilst Hui firmly held him in his arms. With a blank face, Hui tried to process what could have possibly gone through Hyojong's mind, whether he had genuinely lost consciousness and was cracking a joke or if he pretended to fall...as a joke. Once again, Hui assumed the latter so he heartlessly released Hyojong and let him fall onto the ground.

* * *

  
**Author's message:**  
Yo yo yo, back with some more PENTAGON. Hope everyone is still enjoying it! All the members have made an appearance now, thank goodness. Are the ships obvious? Probably but then again, how can you be sure? (ㆁᴗㆁ✿) More coming obviously, stay tuned, stan PENTAGON.   
  
Can I just say I loved the [Pretty Pretty MV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ggyu3ZTFvA)? They're all so adorable and it got me more pumped about writing about them as high schoolers.

╭(♡･ㅂ･)و ̑̑


	5. V. The Timing

Jinho had always found comfort in books even if he wasn’t an avid reader. It was probably why he was happily at a local bookstore on the weekend, on the hunt for novels he needed for classes. The bookstore wasn’t a particularly stunning place but it had a warm and welcoming atmosphere like an old memory. There were only two other people inside in a far corner looking at something together. As he searched through the different sections, Jinho noticed he was surrounded at the tall wooden bookshelves and gulped, hoping he wouldn’t find what he needed up on the top shelf. But of course he did. _Damn it._  
  
Jinho cautiously looked around to make sure no one was watching and this time, instead of getting on his toes, he even tried jumping a little. He knew it wasn’t going to work but he was stubborn enough to try. He immediately backed down when he heard animated chuckling nearby. To his surprise, it came from Hongseok who was leaning on his side against the bookshelf with his arms crossed.  
“Why are you always trying to get books that are too high up?” He said, filled with amusement.  
“Oh hey...Hongseok…” It really wasn’t that unusual to bump into someone from school in a neighbourhood bookstore but it was still too sudden for Jinho. He shuffled aside for Hongseok who walked forward and reached out to grab the book with ease. Hongseok raised a brow at Jinho when he saw the cover.  
“It’s the book we’re studying?” Hongseok said, seemingly surprised.  
“Yeah, it is. I wanted my own copy...” Jinho’s voice drifted off, watching with confusion as Hongseok put the book back onto the shelf.  
“Mmm, wait here.” Hongseok was about to walk away when he turned back whilst chuckling and added, “Actually, the animal section is in the next aisle since you seem to have an interest in that sort of stuff.” Jinho glared at him, not appreciating the mockery and decided to stay put. He heard Hongseok make his way upstairs and it was not long before he came back down, this time with a book in his hand.  
“Here, you can have my spare copy.”  
“Are you sure?” Jinho looked at the book, thinking there must have been a catch, “I can pay you for it.”  
Hongseok shook his head with a big grin on his smile, “I’m sure, don’t worry about it.”  
It took Jinho by surprise when Hongseok started ruffling his hair up and he was about to thank him when a lady called out for Hongseok. The tall boy gave Jinho the book and hurried over to the front, “Coming!”  
“Where were you? Why are you not looking after the store?” The lady scolded him but with a tone of endearment.  
“Sorry mum, I was with a friend.” Hongseok chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. His mum looked over to Jinho who had shyly poked his head out from the aisles whilst hugging the book in his arms. Unsure of the social norms for greeting the parents of others, Jinho awkwardly bowed to greet the tall beautiful lady.  
“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” The lady whispered to her son and then warmly smiled at Jinho who did a second bout of bowing without saying a word.  
“Awfully shy, isn’t he?” Hongseok’s mum giggled and then continued on, “Anyway, can you go to the market for me? I realised I forgot a few things this morning.” She handed a small piece of paper over to Hongseok who was already taking off his half-body apron. Before he could get a word in, his mum immediately left to greet other customers.  
“Sorry about that. Were you going to head somewhere after this?” Hongseok asked as he shoved his apron into a drawer behind the counter.  
Jinho shook his head, “No, just home I guess.”  
“Oh okay, mmm,” Hongseok paused as if to contemplate over what he was about to say, “do you want to go to the market with me? I don’t like going by myself. It’s too boring.” Hongseok chuckled, certain that Jinho was going to decline. Jinho blankly blinked at Hongseok, not sure how he should process the invitation. Everything seemed to be going too well according to Jinho. Making friends wasn’t meant to be _this_ easy.  
“Sure. It sounds like fun.” Jinho responded with his eyes lit up. He did genuinely think it sounded fun because he had never been to the market before but Hongseok was left wondering if the response was sarcastic or not.  
  
The market was only a short walk down the street from where they were and it was crazily busy as usual. It was sensory overload for a Cupid who was used to roaming the peaceful and spacious skies. There were people hustling and bustling about, children running around and filling the place up with their laughter, storekeepers shouting over each other and the occasional stray dog running past. Overwhelmed, Jinho closely trailed behind Hongseok, worried he might get himself separated from the human but he didn’t want to make it too obvious that he was nervous as well. Hongseok tried his best to keep a conversation going by asking Jinho about himself but the poor Cupid had only been a human for a week. There was only so much he could make up on the spot about his non-existent human past.  
 _Why did you move schools? Parents had to relocate because of their jobs.  
Do you have any siblings? Only child.  
Do you have any pets? No._  
Since he was feeling bad for giving such lackluster answers, Jinho took the opportunity to find out more about his classmate. It turned out the bookstore belonged to Hongseok’s parents and he liked to help them after school and on the weekend. He was the eldest child with a younger brother and sister and also had a pet dog. Another thing that Jinho found fascinating about Hongseok was how often he liked to make bad jokes and puns. It was the complete opposite of what you would expect from someone who looked so mature and manly.  
  
They stopped by a vegetable stall where they were greeted by chatty old ladies. Jinho watched from the side as they raved on amongst themselves about how handsome Hongseok was and how he would make the perfect son-in-law. Even though he was joking and laughing along with them, you could tell he was getting embarrassed from the slight redness in his ears. _Well, he is a very handsome human._ A small smile made its way across Jinho’s face but it quickly disappeared as soon as Hongseok turned around to face him.  
“One more stop and we’re done.” He beamed, holding up the bags of vegetables in his hand like they were trophies. The last stop was actually a street food vendor at the end of the market. Jinho held onto some of the grocery bags whilst Hongseok bought some skewer sticks to eat. The clueless Cupid wasn’t expecting anything so it surprised him when Hongseok stuck a rice cake skewer stick in front of his face, beckoning him to take a bite. _Do humans always share food like this? That’s awfully weird..._ Jinho shyly tilted his head forward and bit into squishy rice cake at the end, feeling strangely shy because Hongseok was watching him.  
“Careful, it’s hot.” Hongseok’s hand then accidentally slipped upwards whilst moving the skewer away, leaving a trail of sauce on the tip of Jinho’s nose who was oblivious to what had happened. Without a word, Hongseok tried his best to hold his laughter back and used his sleeve to wipe the sauce off. Jinho could only innocently stare back at him because his hands were occupied with the bags. Otherwise, his initial reaction would have probably been to cover his face and violently pull himself away from Hongseok who had gotten too close.  
  
On the same night, Jinho laid in his bed in his high-rise apartment and flipped through the pages of the book Hongseok lent him. It already had little handwritten notes scribbled on the sides of the pages in different colours. _Wait, is this his proper copy? I’ll ask him on Monday…wow, his handwriting is really bad..._ He flipped through a few more pages and giggled at the sudden appearance of ugly doodles on the corners. Jinho remembered the happenings of the day and felt giddy over the fact that he might have just made his first human friend. Hopefully, the first of many.  
  
~  
  
The weekend had passed by in a flash and the Cupids found themselves back at school. Hui had no luck trying to contact Eunkwang who refused to pick up his calls so he ended up wandering the streets and complaining to his various Cupid and ghost friends. Jinho, on the other hand, had spent his time reading various books he had stolen from the Association’s library before he was banished to the Human world. Surprisingly, he had come to learn that the answers he sought after were in a more unexpected place.  
  
Early in the morning, Jinho cautiously walked through the hallways and popped his head into Hui’s classroom, trying to stay out of the way of other students. _Hey!_ He called out to Hui who was blankly staring off into space. Hui heard Jinho’s voice in his head and turned his head around in a daze. In the one second that he was able to freeze time, Jinho threw the book in his hand at a monstrous speed and aimed it right at Hui’s head.  
 **“** F*CK!” Hui cried out in the exact moment Jinho unfroze time. The book had hit his forehead and landed in front of him on his desk. Even for Cupids with full power, freezing time was an extremely taxing activity on the body which is why most avoided using it. The classroom fell quiet for a second before the students quietly carried on with their own conversations, trying their best to ignore Hui’s outburst. They were still weary of him because they thought he was some sort of delinquent due to his rough manner of speaking and general attitude and demeanour - the exact type that Changgu, the kind and righteous class president, would be keen to befriend.  
  
Hui shot a glare at Jinho who was at the door with a smug smirk pasted on his cute face. _Read it,_ Jinho instructed before walking off...or at least, tried to. In the short few seconds that Jinho was still at the wide classroom door, Hui subtly waved his index finger in small circles which caused Jinho’s shoelaces to untie themselves and then tie the two shoes together. With the next step forward,  Jinho fell face first onto the floor and scattered his belongings everywhere. Satisfied with his revenge, Hui then haughtily examined the book Jinho had thrown at him with such urgency. _‘The Mating Habits of Gorillas’? What the f*ck?_  
  
“Ugghh…” Jinho groaned as he got onto his knees, still wondering how on Earth he tripped over nothing. He tried moving his leg forward, only to have his movements restricted by the tied laces on his shoes. At this point, it was obvious what had happened (and who the culprit was) and he angrily mumbled to himself whilst he quickly untied the laces. It had happened so suddenly that the nearby students were still so confused that they could only stand around and look at each other. Jinho bashfully started picking up the pieces of paper that had slipped out of his binder. He kept his head down and absolutely avoided eye contact, not enjoying being in the spotlight for something so embarrassing. Suddenly, someone handed Jinho his textbook and when he glanced up to see who the kind soul was, it was none other than Kino.  
“Thank you…” Jinho said quietly, taken back by Kino’s appearance. He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel strangely flustered to see the boy up close. He was so fixated on Kino’s eyes that he didn’t even hear the boy say ‘ No worries’. _Every time…_ Seeing Kino up close as a human left Jinho breathless every time. He wasn’t quite sure what the feeling that stirred inside him was but he wasn’t used to it. It wasn’t something he had ever felt before as a Cupid. Once all his belongings were gathered, Jinho got up and left the crime scene as quickly as possible to avoid further embarrassment.   
  
Murmurs were exchanged upon the refreshing sight of Kino, a second year, freely walking into a senior classroom. Hui, who had been oblivious to Kino’s entrance, panicked when the kid stood right beside his desk. It was impossible for Hui to ignore the glowing broken arrow lodged in Kino’s back. _This must be the second case Jinho mentioned…_  
“Excuse me, do you know where Shinwon is? Has he come to school yet?” Kino caught Hui off guard with a question.  
“Not a clue, sorry.” Hui replied, hoping it was enough to get Kino to leave.  
“Ah. Can you tell him that someone from…”  
 _“Oh, we have a visitor.”_  
Kino knew the voice all too well and turned around to be greeted by Shinwon. Yan An continued to walk past Kino and quietly sat down at his own desk.  
“How can I help you, Hyunggu?” Shinwon grinned at what he saw as a brave puppy.  
“Will you be coming after school?” Anyone could tell Kino was really holding himself back and that he wanted to say a lot more.  
“No, why?” Shinwon’s gaze didn’t waver, “Do you miss me that much?” Kino’s silence gave away his answer to which Shinwon just smirked.  
“I’ve been very busy these days so you should just give up, Hyunggu.” Shinwon ruffled Kino’s hair as he walked past and sat behind Yan An. Hui didn’t particularly care about their personal affairs but the obvious tension in the air and the awkward silence that followed made him uncomfortable as a bystander. Kino’s fists were clenched and his lips parted slightly, ready to say something else, but the school bell cut him off. The sounds of people moving around and chairs being dragged out was his cue to leave even if he didn’t want to.  
  
~  
  
Hui had been dozing off during the morning classes but he could not be more awake now that the teacher was wrapping up and a break was around the corner.  
“Alright, one more thing before I let you guys go. As you all know, there’s a test at the end of this week. Can someone volunteer to help Changgu out with helping me prepare them after school today?” The teacher looked around the class with hopeful eyes. There were groans heard across the room, mainly because this was probably the millionth reminder that they had an upcoming test.  
 _‘I’d help but I don’t want to stay back after school…’  
                                     ‘I have practice so I can’t…’_  
 _Someone just volunteer for goodness sake…_ And it was in that moment that a brilliant idea struck Hui. With a very subtle upward flick of Hui’s wrist, Yan An’s hand shot up into the air against his will. Despite his multiple attempts to bring it back down, his arm remained in the air because Hui was using his powers to hold it up with a devilish grin on his face. _You can thank me later..._  
“Ah, thank you, Yan An!” Their teacher exclaimed with a thankful smile and before Yan An could protest, she had dismissed the class early and left in a hurry herself. Hui promptly released the poor Chinese boy and naturally started packing up his books, not caring about the consequences of his mischief. He did however manage to spot Changgu leave the classroom with awfully pink cheeks and a panicked expression. _Wow, someone's excited…_ Yan An stared at his hand in absolute awe, wondering how it could cramp up so strangely with such bad timing.  
“Yah!” Shinwon leaned over his desk and shoved Yan An’s shoulder, “What the hell are you doing? Did you forget what’s after school today?”  
“I don’t know! My hand went up! By itself!” Yan An exclaimed whilst waving his hand around around, extremely frustrated because he knew he sounded ridiculous.  
“By itself.” Shinwon lowered his brows, highly unimpressed with Yan An’s seemingly nonsense antics. “Yan An, I better see you at the gates after school or else we’re both dead.”  
“I know, I know. I’ll figure something out.” Yan An bit his bottom lip, not at all sure if he could keep his word. In reality, the real problem wasn’t finding another person to replace him. It was actually him secretly not wanting to be replaced because deep-down, he did want to stay back even if it was all just a bizarre accident. It was _too_ good of an opportunity to pass.


	6. VI. The Third

Changgu had his hands in his pockets and was lightly kicking the ground as he loitered around the front of the staff office. The after school rush in the corridors had calmed down and there were only a few students left wandering around. With every minute that passed by, Changgu’s hope of seeing Yan An diminished. He hadn’t heard that Yan An wasn’t going to come but neither was there confirmation that Yan An would definitely come to assist him with the teacher’s errand. _Ah, I’m being stupid, there’s no way he’d ditch Shinwon…_  
  
“Hey! Sorry I’m late!” The cute accent perked Changgu right up. He looked up from the ground and right into the eyes of Yan An who was a bit out of breath from running. _Ah.. It’s Yan An…IT’S YAN AN!?_ The tall boy got shy from Changgu’s intense staring and averted his own eyes. The thought that it seemed like such a surprise to Changgu that he had shown up made him a bit upset but he tried his best to brush it off. After all, they weren’t exactly friends. The two awkwardly smiled at each other without saying a word and waited for the other to make a move. In the end, it was Yan An who took the initiative to walk into the office to greet their teacher with Changgu trailing behind, still in silent awe.  
  
After all the test papers were printed off, the two had carried them back to a spare empty classroom on the same floor and started sorting them out and stapling them. Despite being just as nervous, Changgu was doing a lot better at controlling himself than Yan An who kept getting distracted by the beautiful boy sitting in front of him. He was particularly mesmerised by how Changgu’s fringe delicately fell to the side every time he leaned over to align the papers. The fragile looking boy had had the same neat bowl cut since first year. _It’s getting a bit warm…_ Yan An tugged at his necktie to loosen it up and not surprisingly, Changgu just had to sneak a peek despite resisting to do so the entire time. He couldn’t help but admire how long and slender Yan An’s fingers were, how well defined his jawline was... _Changgu, you nugget, stop it..._  
“Is something wrong?” Changgu gently pushed his glass frames up with his fingers. Yan An became flustered, thinking he had been caught, and shook his head, “No, sorry. Nothing’s wrong.”  
He cleared his throat to break the suffocating silence, “Isn’t it weird how the teacher trusts us to sort the test papers out?”  
Changgu was confused for a second and then let out an amused chuckled, “This isn’t the test for our class.”  
“It isn’t?”  
Changgu shook his head with a big smile on his face, “It’s for a different subject. There’s probably another pair of students sorting out the test papers for our class right now.”  
“Oh…” Yan An let out a sheepish laugh, feeling a bit dumb. It wasn’t strange that Changgu was familiar with this sort of stuff. He was the class president after all, top of the class when it came to academics and was always volunteering to help out his teachers and peers.  
  
_BZZZZZ. BZZZZZZZ. BZZZZZZZZZ._  
  
Following the vibrations against the table was the  blaring of Yan An’s embarrassing EXO song ringtone to pierce through whatever awkwardness there was in the air.  
“Aren’t you going to answer it?” Changgu asked, his quick eyes catching Shinwon’s contact photo popping up on the screen. Yan An put on a fake smile and picked up his phone despite knowing he was about to cop sh*t from his aggressive friend.  
_“Hey, where are you?”_ Shinwon’s voice was so loud from the other end that even Changgu could hear him clearly.  
“Hey Shinwon, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it...” Yan An responded quietly.  
_“What the hell does that mean? Yan An, if we’re late she’s going to kill us!”_  
“Uuuummm…” Yan An glanced at Changgu and then looked away.  
_“For f*ck’s sake...are you with that nerd right now? You are, aren’t you?”_  
Yan An turned his body around on the seat and simultaneously tried to lower the volume of his phone. _Why is the button jammed right now!?_  
_“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said you thought he was cute, were y- “_  
Yan An immediately lowered his phone and desperately tapped on the screen to hang up on the devil. _AHHH AH HA H HA HAHA._ Yan An awkwardly spun back around on his chair, wishing the chair would fall right through the ground so he would be able to hide from the embarrassment. His eyes flickered up at Changgu who continued to staple the test papers together, his sweet expression unchanged and his skin as pale as ever. _Maybe he didn’t hear...lucky…_ Yan An let out a discreet sigh of relief and resumed to sorting out the papers, totally missing how bright red Changgu’s ears were.  
  
~  
  
“Yan An, you better get down here or else I will find you and...yah...YAH!” Shinwon yelled into his phone. He brought it down and stared at it with his pupils shaking with anger. _Did Yan An really just hang up on me!?_  
“See you tomorrow Shinwon!” Some female classmates called out as they passed him at the school gates. Despite being angry, he naturally put on his fake charming smile and waved at them, enjoying the mini squeals and giggles from the girls that followed amongst themselves.  It was a guilty pleasure of sorts for Shinwon who was a natural narcissist but not even that was enough to alleviate his bad mood. Looking at his watch heightened his anxiety as he saw the precious time ticking away. _We have to be there in 30 minutes…!_ He considered his (very few) options: 1. Frantically look for Yan An who could be anywhere or 2. Go by himself which would also mean certain death.  
  
With murderous intent, Shinwon stormed back onto school grounds in order to hunt down his Chinese friend and ran towards the gymnasium to get to the main building quicker. It was only when he was mid-way past the sports field that he realised there had been a third option all along.  
“Hey you!” He exclaimed as he sprinted towards the person strolling in the distance with their slouching shoulders and backpack hanging off one side. _Broad shoulders...long limbs...he’s even taller than me!_ Shinwon confidently grabbed the guy’s shoulder to make sure he had their full attention and was somewhat surprised by who it turned out to be.  
“Oh, it’s you…” Shinwon immediately retracted his hand. Since it was someone he vaguely knew, he couldn’t be as aggressive as he would have liked.  
“You’re little Hyunggu’s friend.” Shinwon smirked.

 

* * *

* * *

**_Whilst every arrow is unique, they can all be broken down into three pieces. No matter how many pieces an arrow may be broken into, the shards of wood will gather and form only three separate parts. Each part pertains to the three components of love: passion, intimacy and commitment._ **

* * *

* * *

 

“...and then Wooseok’s arrow missed the target Kino, I mean, Hyunggu, and hit this random student by accident.” Jinho finished off his drawing which was done with his index finger in the air. He had conjured up a floating whiteboard with his powers in order to map out the current situation.

  
“Wow, you are quite the artist. Have you ever considered changing occupations?” Hui sarcastically jeered at Jinho whilst sitting on the ground crossed-legged. School had ended and the two were having a meeting up on the rooftop of the main school building. The small Cupid rolled his eyes and then crossed his arms. ****  
“Did you have a chance to read the book I gave you?” He asked quite seriously.  
“You mean, the book you threw at me?” Hui took the item out of his bag and threw it back to Jinho, “Can’t say I wasn’t thrown off by the ridiculous title but I read it. _[Stenberg’s Theory of Love](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangular_theory_of_love)_...I can’t believe a human managed to think of a theory to actually explain the composition of our arrows. It’s impressive but bizarre.”  
“So you understand now right? The broken arrows.”  
“Sure do, sir.” Hui conjured up another photo onto the board from where he was sitting and started drawing with his finger in the air, “The arrow _you_ broke belongs to this idiot here, Ko Shinwon, and consequently the pieces have hit these two.”

  
Jinho nodded and then leaned over to make a final addition, “And, as you and I both know, there is now a third piece which is currently unaccounted for.”

  
  
The two looked at the board for quite some time, making sure they didn’t miss out on anything. Hui was keeping to himself the anomaly that was Kim Hyojong, hoping to deal with it on his own. Jinho let out a long sigh and started ranting, “I’m going to assume the same laws apply and that the arrows will soon disappear. We need to find out where the third piece is so that we can properly deal with it. I don’t want to have to deal with an unknown variable since we are already not well-versed with the human world.” At this point Jinho was deep in thought, talking with his eyes closed and chin tilted upwards, “It’s not going to be easy to find the third piece...we don’t even know if it’ll be within this school or not. It could be anywhere! I’m assuming that the composition of arrows will give us a clue of some sort...Stenberg’s theory...the three components...passion, intimacy, commitment…HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?” As soon as Jinho opened his eyes, he realised Hui had already gotten up and was walking towards the door exit.  
“Home. See ya, old man.” Hui said before closing the door behind him.  
_That bast*rd._ Disgruntled, Jinho turned around to look at the board to continue his train of thought.  
  
“Uwoooaaahhhh, are you also a magician?”  
The voice, which came from right beside Jinho’s ear, made him jump in shock. Standing beside him was a strange boy who stared at the board in awe. He lifted his hand and excitedly pointed to some of the photos, “Hey, I know these guys.” With an excited expression, he turned to face Jinho who was staring back with shaking pupils. _Sh*t, where’d this guy come from!? Was he here the whole time? Did he hear everything?_  
“Sorry I was eavesdropping but...what’s this arrow business? It sounds like a lot of fun!”  
_F****CCCKKKKK._ The boy’s wide grin and hopeful eyes could not be any more terrifying to Jinho who was having a mental breakdown. _S-sorry, kid._ As a last resort, the Cupid placed two fingers on the human’s forehead and focused his energy in order to cast a spell...or tried to at least. _Sh*t, it’s not working! My powers must have been depleted for today!!!_  
  
All of a sudden, Hui came from behind and knocked the human out with his hand which was infused with what little power he had left. Jinho freaked out over the unconscious body on the ground whilst Hui casually looked at his own hand, disappointed by the lack of power.

“What the f*ck? Why did you knock him out!?” The small Cupid exclaimed whilst waving his arms in the air in a frenzy.  
“Isn’t that what you were going to do anyway?” Hui nonchalantly dragged the unconscious body across the floor.  
“No? I just wanted to erase his memory!”  
Hui ignored Jinho losing his marbles behind him and sat the person upright. He had intended to leave but decided to go back when he overheard the recognisably distinct voice talking to Jinho. _It really was Hyojong...does he seriously live here or something?_  
“...anyway, you can deal with him because I sure as hell won’t be.”  
“Wait, what!?” Hui was ready to protest but realised Jinho had already made his escape. In the brief moment that Hui let go of him, Hyojong’s body started falling to where his head was tilting and Hui instinctively caught him with his arm.  
“YAH! JINHO, COME BACK HERE!” Hui yelled out, knowing it was futile. He looked at the boy in his arm and let out a groan. _UUGGGHHH, I CAN’T ESCAPE THIS KID._ ****  
  
~  
  
“Any updates?” Eunkwang spun around on his swivel chair with a cup of tea in hand. Standing by the window with his body half-way out of the windowsill was Yoo Seonho, Eunkwang’s new secretary. Seonho was a very young and inexperienced Cupid who had just finished his initial training. He had a cute clueless expression all the time and whilst he had an admirable sense of unwavering determination, he was also very clumsy. Eunkwang thought his assignment as a secretary must have been the result of some administration error but didn’t particularly mind Seonho’s bright and stupidly optimistic attitude, something uncommon amongst seasoned Cupids. He gave the youngster the job of keeping an eye on the two Cupid fools currently living as humans to make sure they didn’t cause any more headaches.  
  
Seonho hit his head as he pulled his body back into the room and lowered the all-seeing binoculars in his hands. The device enabled Cupids to watch and listen to all activities happening in the human world from up above through the clouds.  
“Sir! It seems they’ve figured out the clue in the book you got me to plant in the human world!” Seonho beamed with unusual excitement, “And they knocked out a human!”  
“I see. Wait, what did you just say? They what?”  
“They knocked out a human boy who was eavesdropping.” Seonho grinned, somewhat highly amused. Eunkwang shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. _Those idiots...I swear..._  
“Their next move is to find the third piece of the arrow…” Seonho’s voice trailed off and his face naturally revealed a worried expression.  
“What’s bothering you, son?”  
Seonho nervously smiled at Eunkwang and rubbed the back of his neck, “Um...well, okay, I might be wrong but…uh…” Eunkwang raised a brow, waiting for his secretary to continued, “the third piece has already disappeared. They won’t be able to see it.”

 

* * *

 

**Author's message:** Ahhhhhh I'm sorry it's been such a long time since the last update. Thank you for reading. I'll be back with more for sure! ^^

 


	7. VII. The Unwilling

Hui poked his head around the corner and when he confirmed there wasn't anyone in sight, he quickly power-walked through the corridor carrying Hyojong, who was still unconscious, on his back.  _Where's that room they place dead humans in? Godammit._ Another student turned into the corridor from the other end and Hui began to walk backwards, thinking of an escape plan, when the student spotted him.

"Hyojong!" The student exclaimed, already approaching Hui.  _Oh man, here we go_. The guy seemed to know Hyojong and examined his condition with a concerned expression.

"Are you this guy's friend?" Hui interrogated. His question was followed by a nod from the student and without a second thought, Hui lowered himself down to get Hyojong off his back and handed him over to the guy. "Good. You can take him then."

"What happened?"

 _He heard something he shouldn't have so I erased his memory and knocked him out._ Hui's eyes darted to the side, "He fainted. I just happened to be passing by. Now if you'll excuse me..." He was quick to take his leave, not wanting anything more to do with the troublesome human boy.

It wasn't long until Hyojong woke up on the hard squeaky bed of the sick bay with his hair looking like a bird's nest. His sudden movement also woke up his friend who was awkwardly sitting on a stool, laying his head on the bed beside Hyojong's shoulder.

"Hyojong, you're up. That was quick."

"Hongseok..." Hyojong winced at the sharp pain in his head before straightening himself up, "Why am I in the sick bay?"

Hongseok stretched his arms out and then carefully ran his fingers through Hyojong's hair to untangle it, "Yeah. You fainted apparently but luckily, someone found you."

Hyojong tried his best to recall what he was doing before he apparently fainted but nothing came to mind.

"Who was it?" Hyojong asked.

"It wasn't a familiar face. It might be the new guy in the other class? I don't know. Anyway, are you feeling alright?" Hongseok kindly gave his friend a glass of water who chugged it down in an instant.

"Mmm, I don't know how to explain it. I just feel like a part of my brain is missing. Ya know?"

"No, I don't know." Hongseok chuckled. He would never be able to get used to Hyojong's weird expressions despite having been friends with the guy for a while now. He probably admired Hyojong's carefree and creative personality if anything. Just as Hongseok was getting ready to leave, Hyojong grabbed onto his arm and looked at him with a very serious expression and asked, "The person that found me... did they look like a magician?"

_Huh?_

~

The baseball team was spread out on the field that evening, practicing in different training groups. Yuto adjusted his cap and threw a straight ball at his partner who was thrown off by the speed and had to dodge it.

"Sorry!" Yuto yelled out with his hand in the air. Whilst waiting for his partner to go fetch the ball, Yuto unconsciously looked over to a particular spot near the fence.  _He's not here today..._

"YUTO, WATCH OUT!"

The Japanese boy turned around to his partner who watched on in horror as the ball fell from above and dropped onto Yuto's head. He squatted down and winced at the temporary throbbing pain at the top of his head.

"Sorry." Guanlin, his partner, ran over and squatted beside him with an extremely apologetic expression. Lai Guanlin was a first year who had only recently moved from Taiwan to South Korea to start high school. Yuto adored Guanlin and liked to act like a big brother figure because he saw a bit of himself in the young Taiwanese boy - they were both the soft-spoken type who had both moved away from their home country.

Yuto let out a gentle chuckle as he took off his cap to softly massage his head, a bit embarrassed, "It's alright. I should have been paying attention."

Guanlin grabbed onto Yuto's hand and pulled him up. Yuto could tell his partner was feeling sorry so he cheered the boy up by patting his bottom, telling him to move along.

"Oh, it's Wooseok-hyung." Guanlin exclaimed, looking across the field. Yuto instinctively turned his head, his eyes searching for the person who had been on his mind without any luck.

"So you were looking for Wooseok." Guanlin let out a cute snicker. He had actually noticed how distracted his partner had been the whole time. Yuto marvelled at the rare sight of Guanlin's gum-filled smile and the younger proceeded to probe, "Are you interested in him?"

Yuto widened his eyes and immediately waved his hands in the air in disagreement, "No, nothing like that. I've just seen him hanging around here often so I thought he might be interested in joining the team."

"I highly doubt he's interested joining the baseball team."

"How would you know that?" Yuto uttered.

There were two things which he found amusing. The first was how enthusiastic Guanlin seemed to be when talking about Wooseok despite not showing much interest in anything else. Guanlin knew Wooseok from the school's Anime and Gaming Club and admired him for his deep knowledge of the area. That and the fact that he was super tall. The second was the fact that Guanlin kept describing Wooseok as being a cool person when Yuto, upon their first meeting at least, found him to be quite shy and  _cute?_

"But I have noticed he has been hanging around here after school more often. Not that I mind though. I hope I can be friends with him one day..." Guanlin whispered.

"YUTO! GUANLIN! STOP CHATTING AND GET BACK TO PRACTICE!" Their coach yelled from the other side of the field.

"YESSIR!" The two boys shouted.

~

"You're little Hyunggu's friend."

"And you're Ko Shinwon." The giant said rather defensively, something that Shinwon couldn't blame him for. Kino was their mutual friend but the boy had never been too fond of Shinwon, always giving him the cold shoulder and warning Kino to stay away from him. Kino never could though.

"How's the anime club, kid?" Shinwon teased, obviously enjoying irritating Wooseok. It was also somewhat refreshing to talk to someone who was the same height as him because he didn't have to arch his neck down so much.

"What do you want?" Wooseok asked, clearly wanting to skip the small chat. After what happened between Shinwon and Kino, Wooseok couldn't help but hate the guy.

"I want you, Wooseok." Shinwon smirked, "Are you free at the moment?" He was still trying to play it real cool even though he was actually desperate for Wooseok at that very moment and was not going to let him slip away so easily.

"Sorry, I'm busy."

"I know you're just heading home to play more video games or watch your Japanese cartoons...sorry, anime." Shinwon put a hand on Wooseok's shoulder, "Come on, I really need your help. You'll even be paid for your time, I promise." He probably didn't realise how sleazy he sounded and got offended when Wooseok shrugged his hand off.  _This kid is stubborn..._

"You're really not going to help an old friend out?"

"We were never friends."

"Alright, if you put it that way..." _I won't feel bad for doing this then._

Wooseok was on guard, not sure what sort of trick Shinwon was going to pull. In one quick swipe, Shinwon grabbed the Nintendo DS in Wooseok's hand and bolted off without looking back.  _This is so stupid and childish but I really have no other choice!_  As impressive as his tall and lean physique was, Wooseok's laughable level of athleticism left much to be desired. After processing what had happened, Wooseok sluggishly ran after Shinwon even though he felt like his body was sprinting for the finish line. Mind you, he was the type to avoid any form of physical activity at all costs but he would no doubt run after anyone who has their hands on his precious DS.

~

_This is a bit...stalkerish..._

The thought itself was a bit strange for Jinho whose job as a Cupid was to literally follow people. Jinho had happened to spot Kino exiting the school gates at the same time and decided very promptly to follow him. He couldn't help it. Just catching glimpses of Kino at school was enough to make Jinho's day. They had been walking for around 2 blocks with Jinho discreetly strolling at least three metres behind Kino who was very focused on reading his book as he walked. There wasn't much to it other than Jinho quietly admiring Kino from behind - how the slight wind moved his soft hair, how kind he was when others greeted him, his warm voice, his bright laugh. If you asked Jinho how he felt about Kino, he probably wouldn't be able to give you a straight answer. He'd probably tell you that he felt responsible for Kino as his Cupid 'guardian' and wanted to look after him. He probably wouldn't be able to explain his strange growing attachment to the boy now that he too was a human.

Suddenly, Kino stopped at a local bakery stand to look at the pastries, causing Jinho to abruptly stop in the middle of the path. At the slightest movement of Kino moving his head towards him, Jinho jumped into the nearest alleyway in a panic in order to hide.  _Wow, how did it come to this? I'm such an idiot..._ Jinho exhaled deeply to calm himself down and then stared blankly at the two posters in front of him.

_That's definitely...who I think it is..._

He was so focused that a tap on his shoulder was enough to startle the living daylights out of him. It turned out to be Hongseok and unfortunately for Jinho, the boy who he wanted to escape from just moments before, was standing right beside him as well.

"Jinho! I thought it was you." Hongseok said with a warm smile. He noticed Jinho looking quite tensed up and pale and thought maybe he was shy around strangers (which wasn't entirely false). Even Hongseok's beautiful face wasn't going to be enough to calm him down.

"Ah, Hyojong, this is the new student in our class, Jinho." Hongseok patted the small Cupid on the shoulder, "And Jinho, this is Hyojong, a good friend of mine. His desk is actually the one in front of yours but he hasn't been going to classes so..."

"Oh, is that so? It's nice to meet you." Jinho's smile was faltering under immense stress. Our class? I'm in the same class as this guy!? Hyojong's dull stare at Jinho started to creep him out.  _That Hui better have also erased me out of this guy's memories and not just himself..._

Jinho froze up as Hyojong came forward and circled him as if he was some sort of criminal. All of a sudden, Hyojong embraced Jinho with his arms from the back and excitedly looked back at Hongseok, "He's so small and cute! I thought I was small but...but he's even smaller!"

"Hyojong, that's rude." Hongseok scolded.

"I'm just being friendly. You said he's the new guy right? If he's your friend, then he's my friend." Hyojong widely grinned at Jinho who could only shyly smile back. He had never encountered such a stupidly happy person before. _I'm not sure how I feel about this new friend..._

"But I'm curious...have we met before?" Hyojong's question sharply stabbed the already nervous Jinho.

"No, this would be the first." Jinho's eye twitched.

"Ah okay. Maybe in our past life then..."

"Sorry...what?"

Hongseok was quick to intervene and pulled Hyojong away from Jinho, "Ignore him. He's just really into supernatural stuff. Anyway, what are you doing? Are you just standing here admiring our school celebrities?" Hongseok asked, looking at the posters on the wall.

"School celebrities?"

"You didn't know?" Hongseok tilted his head to the side, "Shinwon and Yan An are famous models. They're in the other 3rd year class. Surely you've seen their ads around in shopping malls...TV..."

 _Models...?_  "I see...I must have missed it somehow..."

~

Shinwon knew exactly where he had to lure Wooseok to. They ran quite a few blocks away from the school and before Wooseok knew it, they were in the outskirts of the main city centre. He blindly chased Shinwon into a building without a second thought. It was only when they were inside did he stop in his tracks and realise he definitely had to slow down and restrain himself. It was a classy looking place with lots of tall beautiful people wandering around, some stealing glances at him briefly before walking off.  _Where'd that a**hole go?_

"Nuna!" Shinwon bent over, extremely puffed out from the running. The beautiful woman whacked him over the head and placed her hands on her hips.

"You're late! How many times has it been now? The photoshoot is almost over and all the staff are...where's Yan An?"

"He's not coming today."

"What?" The corner of his manager's lips twitched, her glare instantly striking a chord of fear in Shinwon. He had worked with his manager Hyuna long enough to fear the wrath that the small-framed woman was capable of unleashing.  _Rise and shine, nerd..._  Shinwon peeked around the corner and spotted Wooseok's head rising above the short stylist girls who were literally swamping him.

_"How tall are you? 190?"_

_"Are you for a photoshoot?"_

_"What agency are you with?"_

Wooseok's body was shrivelled up and his eyes rapidly moved from side to side to avoid the imposing women who surrounded him. Shinwon broke through the small crowd that had gathered, chivalrously grabbed onto Wooseok's wrist and pulled him over to his manager.

"I brought this guy along instead as a back up. Will he do for today?"

"Ugh, not you..." Wooseok pulled his arm away from Shinwon and couldn't hide how irritated he was to see Hyuna.

"You little brat, how dare you roll your eyes at me?" Hyuna pulled on Wooseok's ear whilst Shinwon watched on in awe at how close they seemed.

"You guys...know each other?"

Hyuna loudly cackled as Wooseok struggled to pull himself away from her. He was twice her size but she was indeed a powerful woman.

"I'm besties with this idiot's sister. How on Earth did you convince him to come here?" Hyuna let Wooseok go and checked her perfectly manicured nails.

"He didn't convince me. Do you think I would want to be here near either of you?" Wooseok shot a glare at Shinwon and held his large hand out, "Give it back to me." Hyuna was quick to grasp the situation and grabbed the DS out of Shinwon's hand, looking at it with mild curiosity.

"You're a high school student and you're still playing video games?" She shook her head and swiftly dodged Wooseok when he tried to grab it off her.

"Give it back..."

"Only if you help me out today!" She slyly grinned, definitely abusing her sudden power over him. Knowing how much he hated her acting all cutesy, Hyuna went in for the final kill and tightly hugged his arm which she knew would end him, "Pwweeeeaaassseeee."

"Okay! OKAY! Just for today and that's it!" Wooseok cried as he violently shook her off his arm. He didn't really have a choice. The woman was friends with his evil sister after all. He knew she would definitely break his DS if it came to it and there was no way he was going to risk it. Even though he wasn't quite sure what had happened, Shinwon stood on the side with a triumphant grin on his face. It was going to be one hell of a photoshoot.

==============================================================================

 **Author's message:**  Woaho, I forgot to post this chapter to AO3. This chapter has been out on other sites for a while (before PTG's comeback even)... I'M SO SORRY! ><   
Okay so can I just mention that I really miss Yanan and I just want to see him again with the rest of the boys for this promotion. TT They look so good this era and I just...someone help me.   
I LOVE all the tracks on the new album, I can listen to it all day. Special shout out to Guanlin for making it to Wanna One! My new fave rookies hehehe. That's enough from me, see you guys soon.


	8. VIII. The Calm

**“** And we’re done!”The lead photographer cried out, taking a step away from the camera as soon as he took the final shot. The models in the final shoot broke out of their statueforms and starting bowing and thanking everyone around them. Except Wooseok. That guy was the quickest to get out of the spotlight. He had already started taking off the layers of clothes and accessories they had put on him but it came with great difficulty because of the unconventionally designed garments.  
“Whoa, slow down. This isn’t a strip show.” Shinwon remarked as he pulled up beside Wooseok. Unlike his impatient friend, Shinwon took his sweet time undoing the buttons of his shirt. Wooseok continued to struggle out of his clothes, getting increasingly agitated.  
“These clothes cost thousands, you know? You should be feeling stoked you get the chance to even wear them for even a few seconds.”  
“Thousands!?” Wooseok held up his sleeves which reached up to his knees, “For such ugly and useless clothing?” He was definitely angry. There were a million other things he would rather spend thousands on - games, comics...more games. Hyuna had been watching them from the other side of the room and started walking over. She was already plotting ways to get Wooseok to do some more modelling. The job seemed like a mismatch for someone as lame as Wooseok but he was a born natural which he probably didn’t even realise.  
“It’s called fashion.” Hyuna interrupted them, “You did a good job, you nerd. The photographer was really impressed and kept asking where I found you.” She playfully shoved Wooseok’s shoulder to get a reaction out of him and the best she could get as a glowing glare.  
“Well, did you tell him I was harassed into doing this?” Wooseok hid his bare chest with his arm and shoved a shirt into Hyuna’s arms before angrily grabbing his school uniform off the rack. Shinwon and Hyuna shared a look of amusement and watched him as he stormed off whilst putting on his clothes in a fantastically clumsy and messy fashion.  
“I wonder if we should tell him he still has the makeup on.” Shinwon smirked as he casually took his shirt off. Not that it was his business anymore.  
Hyuna let out a long sigh and then nervously bit her nail, “What should I do? I already promised the photographer I’d get him back in for another shoot…”  
Shinwon let out a laugh from pure shock, “Are you serious? That would require a miracle.” He knew there was no way Wooseok would willingly come back for another modelling gig.  
“It’s time to make miracles happen then.” Hyuna grinned, “You did well as usual Shinwon. Just don’t be late next time or I’ll really kill you. What happened to Yan An?”  
“That person is dead to me.”  
“Well, tell the dead he better give me a call later. Now put some clothes on before you get a cold.”  
  
~  
  
It wasn’t hard for Kino to spot Wooseok in the distance, a walking tree with a hunched back. His body gravitated towards his friend in the form of a light jog.  
“Wooseok!” Kino’s excitement quickly wore off when he realised Wooseok was hiding his face and rubbing his eyes with his fingers. He hadn’t realised how quickly his heart could sink at the mere thought of Wooseok crying. The last time Kino could remembering Wooseok cry was back when they were in elementary school and he had gotten his gameboy confiscated for playing during class.  
“Wooseok! What’s wrong!?”  After he persistently tugged at Wooseok’s sleeve, Kino was somewhat relieved to see that his friend was not actually crying. Wooseok reluctantly lowered his arm to reveal the extravagant eye makeup he had on which unfortunately involved a lot of very fine glitter. He also had perfectly styled and swept back hair which was a lot different from the usual mess of a bird’s nest he sported. Kino was tongue-tied at first, half because he was confused as to what was going on, half because Wooseok looked so damn fine that it was too much of a shock.  
“Why do have so much - ”  
Wooseok brushed Kino’s arm off and hid his entire face behind with his huge hands. With a muffled voice, he pitifully said “That’s not important. Just help me get it off. I’ve been trying to get it off with water but it’s not working.”  
“Water isn’t going to do anything, stupid.” Kino chuckled at his clueless friend and dragged him along.  
  
The two sat down on a bench outside of the shop they bought makeup wipes from and Kino couldn’t help but ogle from the side as Wooseok wiped the makeup and glitter off of his face. _Is this real? He looks so cool with his hair like this..._  
“Is it all off now?” Wooseok turned to Kino, showing all angles of his face.  
“Um…” Kino reluctantly leaned forward to examine Wooseok’s face, “yeah, I think so.” He quickly moved back to his own space on the bench, noticing that his hands were getting sweaty from being so nervous all of a sudden. _Not sure if this is a blessing or a curse right now..._  
“Soooo, are you going to tell me or not?”  
“Tell you what?” Wooseok said whilst patting his wet face down with tissues.  
Kino wasn’t sure if Wooseok was being serious or not, “Uh, I don’t know, maybe how you came to look so beautiful?” Kino’s heart jumped a little, realising he just used the word ‘beautiful’ to describe his friend. Crap, did that come across weird? There was a bit of panic but he hoped he said it sarcastically enough that it would be taken as a joke.  
Wooseok let out a heavy sigh knowing he couldn’t hide anything even if he tried, “I was forced to do some modelling work…”  
“Forced? By Who?”  
“Not important...”  
“What!? Now you have to tell me!”  
“You don’t want to know, trust me on this.”  
“Just tell me!” Kino chuckled and continued to jab Wooseok on the side until he gave in. Wooseok did resist for a good minute or two until it became unbearably irritating.  
“Okay, okay, okay.” Wooseok mopily leaned back against the bench and avoided making eye contact, “It was Shinwon, happy? He lured me in by stealing my DS and out of all people, the manager had to be Hyuna…” A groan of agony was let out as Wooseok recalled the horrors of the photoshoot. It wasn’t so much the actual photoshoot itself that irked him but rather the atmosphere and the fact that there were so many people crammed into such a small space.   
  
Kino remained silent for a while, wishing he hadn’t probed Wooseok so much. He should have known _that_ guy would be involved as soon as modelling was mentioned. Sensing the discomfort, Wooseok was trying to quickly think of something else to talk about when he saw two people walking towards them and couldn’t help but utter, “Holy shxt, it’s him…” under his breath. It was barely audible but not loud enough for Kino to have heard what he said exactly. Wooseok immediately stood up to greet the person excitedly running towards him.  
“Wooseok-hyung!”  
“Guanlin! Hey!” Wooseok gulped as the other person approached from behind Guanlin, “Oh! Um, Yuto right?” He died inside, knowing he was shamelessly pretending to be unsure of the beautiful guy’s name. Yuto politely nodded with a smile and before he could say a word, Guanlin had already started chatting with Wooseok. Meanwhile, Kino quietly watched from the side as they exchanged words. He knew something was off the moment the two people came up to them. Wooseok had become nervous. It wasn’t the type of nerves that Wooseok got from waiting for his gaming rank to be announced or from doing a class presentation. No, it was the type of nervousness that Kino himself was all too familiar with, one that was coupled with bashfulness...like someone with a crush. But Kino wasn’t sure. It could’ve just been him overthinking as always and there wasn’t much he was basing it off other than a gut-feeling. _Is he nervous because of Guanlin or because of...him?_  Kino made eye contact with the other guy who had also been patiently standing on the side, politely letting the other two talk. Kino had seen him around the school before but never talked to him. _Wooseok said his name was Yuto…_ The Japanese boy noticed Kino intently staring at him and politely lowered his head as a greeting which Kino returned.  
“We’re going to the arcade now! You guys should come join us!” Guanlin’s outburst of enthusiasm pulled Yuto and Kino back into the conversation.  
“Oh, nah, it’s alright… you guys go ahead and…” Wooseok chuckled. He actually did want to join them but was hesitant.  
“No! Come on! The more the merrier!” Guanlin had his bright smile on as he latched onto Wooseok and dragged him off, leaving Yuto and Kino no choice but to follow along behind them.  
  
~  
  
Jinho stared blankly at the barbeque grill in front of him, not paying attention to whatever Hongseok and Hyojong were talking about. After they bumped into each other on the way home, Jinho was somehow dragged along on their after school adventure despite being vocal about ‘not having time’. Jinho didn’t particularly mind hanging out with Hongseok because the only problem he had was that the boy was too dazzling to look at sometimes. Hyojong, on the other hand, made Jinho feel uneasy, most likely because their first meeting on the rooftop had induced an unhealthy amount of anxiety into poor Jinho. Granted Jinho hadn’t really interacted with many humans, Hyojong was by far the weirdest one he had encountered. Hyojong liked to make weird comments and noises occasionally and was also an extremely touchy person, even to Jinho who he had just met. Jinho also didn’t appreciate the fact that Hyojong kept exclaiming how ‘cute and small’ he was despite not being that much taller himself when compared to someone like Hongseok.  
  
But Jinho was enjoying himself. It was the simple human fantasy that the cupid had hoped to experience - hanging out after school with some friends and grabbing some dinner together. Despite being tired, he knew he wanted to do it more often, maybe with even more people. However, it didn’t take much to ruin the cupid’s simple fantasy. Jinho accidentally bit on his tongue as soon as he saw Hui standing at the window behind Hongseok and Hyojong, creepily starring at him. _YOU! I’VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR YOU._  
_No, no, no don’t come in, don’t come in!_  
But Jinho’s plea went on ignored. Hui pushed the door open and stormed over to the table only to find out that Jinho was sitting with none other than Hyojong and the guy he had left Hyojong with only hours before at school. The barrage of swearing on the tip of his tongue was ceased as he stood at their table awkwardly.  
_FFFFFFFXXXXXXXXXXXXXXCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKK._  
_I told you not to come in!_  
“Oh, it’s you!” Hongseok’s face lit up, “The guy who found Hyojong today, right?”  
Damn it, I should’ve erased this kid’s memory too. Hui let out an airy laugh, “You might have me confused with someone else.”  
“No, it was definitely you.” Hongseok chuckled, “Are you here for Jinho? Please, join us!”  
“Yeah, _Hui_ , join us.” Jinho smirked, grabbing onto Hui’s arm and pulling him down. _Suffer._  
_You are so fxcking lucky I used up all my powers today to erase that idiot’s memory otherwise I would grab your puny little skull right now and…_  
“So you’re Hui, right? I’m Hongseok and this is Hyojong. Nice to meet you.” Hongseok chimed in, unintentionally interrupting the two cupids.  
“Uh...yeah.” Hui gave Hongseok only the slightest nod without saying anything else.  
“How do you guys know each other?”  
“We...uh…” Hui’s eyes darted around as if the answer was written somewhere.  
“We came from the same town and just happened to move to this school at the same time as well.” Jinho said with a forced eye smile.  
“Oh, that’s cool.”  
Hongseok continued to ask Hui more questions and it was only after the fifth or sixth one that Hyojong piped up all of a sudden, “Did you say he was the one that found me today?”  
“Yeah! He was carrying you on his back in the hallway when I saw him.”  
“I knew it.” Hyojong smiled as if he knew a secret, unknowingly stirring up the cupids who saw him. Jinho looked at Hui with urgency, _You did erase his memory right?_  
Hui discreetly nodded and focused his attention on Hyojong, “What do you mean by that?”  
It was an unnerving few seconds of silence for Hui as he waited for Hyojong to finish wrapping a piece of meat up with lettuce. When he was done, Hyojong dipped it into some sauce and hand-fed Hui with a cheeky grin, “I just had a feeling it would be you.”  
  


* * *

**너를 사랑하는 찌질이 찌질이**


	9. IX. The Storm

“You can thank me later for this opportunity.” Guanlin winked a bit too enthusiastically for Yuto’s liking. He had seen the same devilish grin on the young one before and it usually meant trouble.  
“Opportunity for what?”  
“You know...to ask Wooseok if he wants to join the baseball team.”  Again, with the wink.  
“Stop winking.”  
“Okay.” The brat winked again and before Yuto could attack him, Guanlin made a run for it towards the claw machines.  
Speechless at whatever Guanlin had in mind, Yuto turned away and noticed Wooseok standing by himself, looking a bit lost without his friend. Kino had opted out of going to the arcade for some reason as they were walking along before. Wooseok did offer to go with him but Kino insisted that he would be okay. Yuto made eye contact with Wooseok and walked over, chuckling, “I don’t know what’s gotten into Guanlin.”  
“He’s a bit hyperactive today.”  
 _Probably because his idol is with us._ Yuto smiled at the thought, “Did you want to play a game of basketball hoops with me?” His offer was quickly accepted with a nod from Wooseok. They stood side by side in front of the two machines. The game started and it was obvious who was going to win from the get-go. Yuto had a natural athletic ability from a young age and pretty much excelled at most sports, eventually settling for baseball in high school. You’d think Wooseok’s freakishly long limbs would be an advantage in a game like basketball hoops but you couldn’t be more wrong considering Wooseok’s poor coordination and innate clumsiness. In their second game, Wooseok tried his best to get another ball in but instead, smashed the ball against the hoop which then bounced back and hit him in the face. Wooseok ended up crouching on the floor, covering his face to ease the immediate rush of pain from the impact, hoping it wouldn't result in blood nose.  
Yuto stopped playing immediately and came to Wooseok’s side in a panic, “Are you alright?” He had never witnessed someone get injured from a one-person basketball game before. Wooseok slowly uncovered his face and got flustered over how close Yuto’s face was to his. _Too close!_  
“Y-yeah! I’m fine!” He exclaimed whilst his pupils shaked from the close encounter.  
“Your face is getting red, are you sure you’re alright?” Concerned, Yuto leaned in closer for a better look which only made things worse for poor Wooseok, of course.  
“No, no, no, I’m fine.” Wooseok backed away until his back was against another game machine. He saw Guanlin rushing over and had to cup his cheeks in an attempt to get the blushing would go away.  
  
===  
  
Whilst Hongseok and Hyojong were busy grilling Hui at the table, Jinho’s eyes latched onto the sight of Kino walking past the window of the restaurant and nearly spat out his water. _KINO!_ Kino looked down at the ground as he walked for a bit and then forced himself to hold his head up high with a long face. Jinho didn’t understand why seeing Kino like that saddened him so much but regardless, he was compelled to do something...anything.  
“I forgot something! I have to leave!” Jinho cried out, startling the others with his sudden outburst.  
 _What the fxck? Don’t leave me here with these humans!_ Hui projected his thoughts into Jinho’s head, coupled with a look of betrayal. Jinho was the only reason Hui ended up in this mess in the first place.  
“Let me know how much the food was. See you guys!” Jinho hugged his bag and rushed out of the restaurant without looking back, clearly fixated on Kino. Just a few minutes after, Hongseok excused himself from the table, claiming he needed to be home soon.  
  
And then, there were two.  
  
====  
  
 _Hey, hey, isn’t that Yan An?  
               Oh my god, I think it is._  
  
Changgu had a hard time ignoring the whispers and murmurs which had started as soon as he came into the cafe with Yan An. Of course, he himself understood what all the fuss was about. Even he couldn’t fathom the situation. Yan An, the Shanghai prince, the school model, the guy who came out of a manga, was hanging out with him. It took a lot of courage for Changgu to ask Yan An to hang out after they finished helping out the teacher but he didn't actually think it would happen.  
“Thanks for helping out today.” Changgu said for what must have been the 100th time since they left school. He really had nothing else to say to Yan An. Well, apart from the likes of _‘Thank you for existing’, ‘Can you please tell me what it’s like to be so beautiful?’_ etc etc.  
“It was nothing.” Yan An said, feeling a bit guilty for the gratitude he was receiving. He hadn’t intended to volunteer. It was an accident...a really weird one. Regardless, this was his opportunity to get to know Changgu and yet he was feeling so shy, he couldn't even properly strike a conversation.  
“I'm surprised you're always helping out with these tasks. Isn't it tiring?” Yan An asked, hoping that it didn't come across as if he was always paying attention to Changgu...even though he practically was anyway.  
“I usually have to go to the tuition centre afterwards so it's not too bad,” Changgu panicked, “Wait, am I keeping you from something?”  
“No, not at all.” Yan An smiled, “I should be the one worrying about keeping you.”  
 _Oh god, that beautiful smile._  
At that moment, a waitress came by and placed their drinks on the table. Yan An had ordered a large fancy milkshake which came in a tall glass whilst Changgu had opted for a hot chocolate in a medium-sized tea cup.  
“Ah sorry, my glasses are fogging up a bit…” Changgu took off his glasses and held them up to his eyes to examine them. It was probably both fortunate and unfortunate that he couldn’t see Yan An silently freaking out on his side of the table. It wasn’t his first time seeing Changgu without glasses but he had never seen it up close and it would be no exaggeration to say he saw flowers blossoming around Changgu’s face in real time. Changgu was cute with his glasses on but without them, Yan An was absolutely in trouble.   
  
In what could only be described as paranormal activity, Yan An’s drink fell all over his pants just as Changgu reached out to grab a napkin. The two blankly stared at the glass that had fallen over because it had happened way too fast. Changgu looked at his hand in awe. He could have sworn that he wasn’t even near the damn cup.   
“Ah, cold…” Yan An uncomfortably shuffled in his seat in his now milkshake-drenched pants.  
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Changgu stood up in a major panic, pupils shaking. Even though he wasn’t responsible, it just seemed like he was responsible because otherwise, what else could it have been? Magic? He pulled the tissues out for Yan An as if he had an endless supply and at one point unconsciously started wiping down the excess drink off Yan An’s pants.   
“It's okay, it's not your fault.” Yan An realised Changgu was too distressed to listen so he had to hold onto Changgu's hands. Their eyes meeting briefly was enough to calm Changgu...kind of.  
“I HAVE MY SPORTS PANTS!” Changgu shouted for the entire store to hear, “PLEASE WEAR MY PANTS!” Before Yan An could get a word in, Changgu had already begun blindly digging for his tracksuit pants from his bag and pulled them out. Sensing Yan An’s rejection to the idea, Changgu grabbed onto his hand and pulled him all the way to the bathroom.  
  
“They’re a bit…” Yan An looked down at the pants which stopped midway at his shin and then up at Changgu, “short.” He had to mute his smile in order to not cause more damage to the already devastated Changgu. Changgu knew his pants wouldn’t fit the giant Chinese man perfectly but seeing the difference was too much of a shock.  _How long are his legs!?_ Even so, the more shocking fact was that Yan An still somehow managed to look good!? How was that even possible!?  Adamant on not staring any longer like a fool, Changgu shyly stepped forward and took Yan An’s uniform pants away.  
“I’ll have these washed for you.”  
“You don’t have to. It’s not a big deal honestly.” Yan An was already reaching out for his pants but Changgu was persistent, shaking his head and already folding the pants, ready to put them away in his bag back at the table.  
“I insist.”  
  
===  
  
 _Ugh, where did the he run off to?_ Hui looked around the busy streets for signs of Hyojong who had conveniently told Hui to hold onto his bag and disappeared. They had both finished up at the restaurant not long after Jinho and Hongseok left and were wandering around downtown. Well, Hyojong thought they were simply hanging out but Hui was actually just on his way home, not knowing that it was human courtesy to actually announce that. Hui decided to stay still, hoping Hyojong would come back soon, and noticed something interesting inside a nearby cafe. _Well, well, well, if it isn’t the two damn lovebirds who are ruining my life…_ Hui already felt like cringing from the awkwardness between Yan An and Changgu that could be sensed from so far away. Feeling generous, he concentrated on what little powers he had to the tip of his fingers and made a swiping gesture in the air, focused on the milkshake glass on the table right in front of Yan An. However, he didn’t have time to be amused with the consequences when he sensed a strong non-human presence nearby. A tall cupid clumsily made his way out of the bushes and quite cheerfully waved at Hui upon seeing him with a dumb smile.  
“Who are you?” Hui grimaced. It wasn’t a cupid he recognised as part of the district.  
“Hui-nim! I am YOO! SEON! HO! Nice to meet you.” Seonho saluted and then bowed in front of Hui, “I’m Sir Eunkwang’s new secretary. I’m here on Earth for a very important top secret task.”  
“Let me guess, to monitor me and the dwarf, right?”  
“Yes, to monitor you and...” Seonho’s blank face went from 0 to 100 in milliseconds after he realised he really should learn to keep his mouth shut, “H-how did you know!?”  
Hui narrowed his eyes, suspicious of Seonho’s serious reaction, _Is he an idiot?_  
“Look, I already have enough to deal with so if your only task on Earth is to monitor me, please keep your distance and don’t interfere.” Hui shooed Seonho away with his hands.  
“But, but I can help you!” Seonho exclaimed and then looked away, flustered, “Truth is, I’m a huge fan of yours…” Seonho started twiddling his thumbs, “It would truly be an honor to work with you...granted, we can’t let Sir Eunkwang know...because it’s against the rules…” Seonho was so busy talking that he didn’t realise Hui was no longer listening to him.  
“Hui! I got them!” A voice cried out from the crowd, grabbing their attention. Hyojong was running excitedly running towards Hui with two ice cream cones in his hands. However, uponarriving, he furrowed his brows and forced Hui to hold onto the two cones.  
“Hui, don’t be alarmed about what I’m about to tell you.” Hyojong said with a sharp look in his eyes.  
“Huh?”  
“Stay behind me.” Hyojong bravely pulled Hui to the side and held out his arms, “I think there’s a spirit standing near us right now.”  
Seonho looked around him, startled, _There is!?_  
 _It’s you, you idiot!_ Hui scowled at him from behind Hyojong.  
“It’s okay, it’s not an ominous spirit though. It’s a kind one.”  
“I am indeed a kind spirit, human.” Seonho beamed, touched by the comment.  
“Seems a bit dumb too, we’re safe.”  
The cupid gasped and looked at Hui, betrayed by the human’s insult. Hui couldn’t help but let out a chuckle and tried to quickly hide his amusement.  
“Are all humans this rude!?” Seonho crossed his arms and glared at Hyojong who obviously couldn’t see him. Hui’s laugh didn’t escape Hyojong who lowered his arms and turned around.  
“Are you laughing at me? Do you not believe me either?” Hyojong said quietly. His sad eyes struck Hui who hadn’t seen him look so down before. It was an unfamiliar look especially when Hui had gotten used to Hyojong’s bright, stupid and animated expressions. Hui gave Hyojong an ice cream cone and pushed him along, away from the meddling Cupid. _Seonho, go and tell Eunkwang he better answer my phone calls or I will personally break my way into heaven and shove it up his a**._  
“No, I’m laughing at the dumb spirit, not you.” Hui said nonchalantly, “Let’s go before the idiot bothers me even more.”  He was confused by the sight of Hyojong cutely smiling all of a sudden but knew he preferred this look on the human.  _His senses are definitely sharp for a human...this explains quite a lot...I should definitely keep an eye on him..._  
  
Hui couldn’t have known but his words touched Hyojong, igniting a wave of fondness and excitement within the human. _I knew Hui was different from the rest._  
  
===  
  
“Argh! Kang Hyunggu, you idiot!” Kino exclaimed out of frustration. It was his fault for feeling this way after all. He could’ve just stayed with Wooseok and pretended everything was fine but instead, he was beating himself over leaving and now wondering what could possibly be going on inside Wooseok’s mind. He couldn’t get rid of the uneasiness that he had felt as soon as he saw the way Wooseok looked at Yuto, as brief as it was.  
“I’m just imagining things…” Kino muttered to himself. He let out a heavy sigh and turned the last corner on his way home.  
  
Following behind him, watching his every move, was one small, jumpy, cupid-turned-human, Jo Jinho. He had ended up following Kino unintentionally after seeing him walk by the restaurant without any real plan. Jinho was quickly learning that simply having a strong desire to befriend someone was not going to be enough. As a human, he felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety just at the thought of talking to Kino, let alone being friends with him. He popped his head out from behind a pole to make sure Kino was a safe distance away and suddenly, a voice carefully murmured from behind him, “Hrmm, so you were stalking Hyunggu…”  
Before Jinho could react, his mouth was already firmly sealed by a hand and the person told him to be quiet. Jinho was pulled away into the next street and was then promptly let go by the person who greeted him with a familiar face.  
“Hongseok!” Jinho cried out in awe.  
“Sssshhhhh.”  
“What are you doing here?”  
“I think I should be the one asking you that.” Hongseok's tone changed and he narrowed his eyes, “I thought maybe it only looked like you were following Kino after school today but now that I’ve caught you stalking him…”  
“I’m not stalking him,” Jinho interjected very firmly, “I’m guarding him, it’s my duty.”  
Hongseok looked down at him with a weirded out face, “Well, sure, that’s one way to put it I guess…”  
Jinho was more bewildered by the fact that his senses had dulled so much that he didn’t notice someone had been following him. The reality that his cupid form was deteriorating was ever so slowly settling in.  
“Well, I’m sure Kino would be interested to find out that the new senior student has been stalking him…” Hongseok cleared his throat and pretended to look like he was about to call out to Kino.  
Jinho desperately pulled Hongseok’s arm back, “Please don’t! Please don’t say something like that to him. I’m not stalking him, I swear.”  
Hongseok was surprised by how serious Jinho was about the whole thing. He was initially just curious about what business Jinho had with Kino but it seemed like things were becoming more interesting.  
“Okay, if it means that much to you, I won’t tell Kino about this,” Hongseok paused with a gaze that was difficult to read, “but on one condition.”  
Jinho frowned. All along he had thought Hongseok to be a kind human, unaware of this wily side to him.  
“Fine, what is the condition?” Jinho asked, suspicious as to what the human could possibly want from him.  
Hongseok grinned widely and stepped forward, pinning Jinho to the wall with his arm, “Go on a date with me.”


	10. X. The Clueless

Jinho paced back and forth in front of the station, regretting his decision to accept Hongseok’s absurd condition a few nights ago. A cupid going on a date? With a human? It was unheard of! As a seasoned cupid, Jinho had watched over hundreds of dates and yet this would be his first time ever going on one...if it can even be considered one. _This is a terrible terrible idea..._ But it had to happen. It was a small price to pay at the risk of not being able to get closer to Kino because of a misunderstanding. Kino was Jinho’s case to resolve, absolutely no one else’s.  
  
A pair of hands grabbed Jinho’s shoulders from behind which startled him right back into his senses. The person who he had been fearing greeted him with a comforting smile.   
“A bit too tense, aren’t we?” Hongseok chuckled at Jinho’s face of despair.  
“Hongseok, you’re here.”   
“Of course I’m here. I asked you out, didn’t I?” The tall one leaned forward to match with the cupid’s height, “On a date.” An amused smirk crept across Hongseok’s face and he promptly straightened back up and ruffled Jinho’s hair. He could get used to this, teasing Jinho.   
_Ah, yes..I’m here on...a date…_ Jinho had become increasingly suspicious of Hongseok and his intentions. A new side of Hongseok was starting to come to light now that he had something on Jinho. Whether or not Jinho could trust Hongseok was still up in the air. There was not much time for doubting however as Hongseok already began leading the way, “Let’s go before we’re late.”   
“Late? Where are we going?”  
“That’s a surprise.”  
 _Surprise?_ The cupid confidently smiled to himself, feeling self-assured. _Calm down, Jinho, he is a young human after all...this date will be predictable with no surprises._ _  
_ _  
_Or at least that’s what he thought. When Jinho realised they were walking past the shopping centre, he reached out to grab onto Hongseok’s coat, “Isn’t the cinema that way?”  
“It is...why? Did you want to go see a movie?” Hongseok tilted his head, wondering if he had ever mentioned going to the cinema to Jinho.  
“Oh, I just thought…” Jinho was tongue-tied, feeling his cheeks growing warm. He was so certain that it was going to be a typical movie and dinner date.   
“I’ve never been too fond of movie dates to be honest. You spend 2 hours in complete darkness and you can’t even see or talk to your date,” Hongseok smiled, “and personally, I want to see as much of you as I can.”  
Despite being on guard, the human’s devilish charm was still able to make Jinho flustered. If Jinho was going to be on the receiving end of such cheesy lines the whole day, he was going to be in trouble. _Where are we going then? An amusement park? The zoo? Aquarium?_ They continued walking for another block until Hongseok abruptly stopped in front of a small shop, causing the clueless Jinho to crash into his back.  
“Looks like we’re here just on time.”   
Curious, Jinho observed what was happening inside and then looked back at Hongseok whose eyes seemed to shine with excitement. _Are...are you serious!?_  
  
~  
  
Kino spotted Wooseok coming out of the entrance of the station and waved his hand in the air,  
“Wooseok! Over here!” As he watched Wooseok walk over, Kino couldn’t shake off the image of him with styled back hair from the other day, his glorious forehead and piercing eyes in full view. He had asked Wooseok to go shopping with him since it was the weekend but it felt like an empty invite for Kino. Casually hanging out as friends was one thing but was he okay with it being that way forever? The thoughts continued to brew inside Kino’s mind who could only accept things as they were at present due to fear.  
“Sorry, I’m late.” Wooseok said as he approached Kino. Although he was in his usual getup of jeans, a worn out hoodie and a pair of Vans, it was still enough to cause a stir within Kino. Well, Wooseok could probably get away with wearing just a trash bag and Kino would still think he was the most beautiful person on Earth.  
“That’s alright, I only just got here.” Kino beamed, “Let’s go!”   
  
The two headed for the centre of the shopping district where large crowds gathered. It was a lively atmosphere with the sound of buskers and people chatting and laughing filling up the air. They stopped by a few different clothing stores because Kino was in search of some new clothes. He had always secretly harboured a wish to buy something matching with Wooseok but would never force it on the guy. Wooseok’s style basically consisted of staple pieces and merchandise from his favourite anime and video games which was vastly different from Kino’s fashionable street style. They exited a large department store and walked down the main road, hoping to stop by a cafe soon to rest. Wooseok glanced over at Kino who was silently walking along, holding onto his shopping bags. Over the last couple of weeks, he had noticed Kino had been less lively than usual. He was more often than not wearing an expression as if something was troubling him deeply which would quickly disappear in front of others, even Wooseok himself.   
“Hey, is everything alright?” Wooseok asked, feeling a bit awkward about the mood. The question was so sudden that Kino could only manage a quiet laugh.  
“That’s such a weird thing for you to ask. Everything’s alright...why?”  
 _There it is, that forced smile._ He had always seen Kino as a person who shined brightly compared to his rather gloomy self. He often wondered why Kino was still by his side despite being so well-liked by others and always came to the same conclusion - that Kino was just a genuinely kind person, a life-long friend. If something was bothering Kino, he wanted to know because he cared deeply for his best friend even if he wasn’t the best at expressing himself.  
“I don’t know, you seem distracted lately, like something is bothering you. And you also left all of a sudden when we were going to the arcade the other day without saying much.” The words drifted away from Wooseok who didn’t know what else to say. He cursed himself internally for being so awkward when it came to talking about these things. Kino nervously chuckled, stunned by how transparent he had come across to Wooseok. It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise though. He would be able to tell if something was even slightly troubling Wooseok so it made sense that Wooseok was just as capable of doing so. _Ah, what should I say…?_ Kino looked at the ground as he slowed down his steps. _It’s not like I can just tell him…how I really feel…_ Kino knew there was never going to be a perfect time to say what he had internalised for years. The growing silence was starting to get unbearable so he decided to take a deep breath to calm his nerves down. _  
_“Wooseok, I - ”  
“Hold on.” Wooseok abruptly grabbed onto Kino’s hand and pulled him along through the large crowd. Kino just kept quiet and followed Wooseok’s lead from behind. Even though he knew it wouldn’t last long, he squeezed onto Wooseok’s hand, thinking about how nice it was to be holding it even for a second. If only he could hold on forever.  
  
Once they reached a more spacious area, away from the crowds, Wooseok naturally let go of Kino’s hand, “Sorry, I just thought it’d be easier if I navigated us through the big crowd first.”  
“Good thinking.” Kino smiled albeit bitterly. The courage to confess had been drained from him in an instant and there was no way he could say anything now.  
“Anyway, if there’s anything bothering you, feel free to talk to me.” Wooseok shyly looked away, “I mean, I know I’m probably not the best person because I’m awful with this stuff but I’m always happy to listen.”   
Kino playfully whacked Wooseok on the back and went on about how weird it was for Wooseok to be showing concern for him all of a sudden. _You really aren’t the best person to talk to..._ _  
_ _  
_~  
  
“Oh my god, he’s so hot, I could watch him all day.”  
“Do you think he has a girlfriend? But he came with that guy...is he...no waaay…”  
“Hey, hey, I’m going to grab his number after this…”  
“He’s totally my type. How old do you reckon he is?”  
  
“Are you okay?” Hongseok’s voice pierced through the cloud of whispers that occupied Jinho.  
“Huh?” Jinho stared at the beautiful boy in front of him as if it was the first time he had seen the guy the entire day.   
“You seem a bit distracted.” Hongseok said as he pulled a pink apron over Jinho’s head, “Do I look that good in an apron?” He teased, reaching around Jinho’s waist to tighten the apron. Jinho had been so disorientated by the situation that it was only barely starting to sink in. _A BAKING CLASS. WE’RE IN A BAKING CLASS._ Jinho, an almighty cupid whose job was to make dates happen, had been thrown a curveball out out of nowhere. There wasn’t much time to be questioning why Hongseok would take him to a baking class out of all places because their instructor at the front was quick to jump into her demonstration as soon as everyone was ready. After the first demo, Hongseok slid over the crate of 6 eggs for Jinho to separate the egg white and yolk whilst he prepared the other ingredients. Jinho reluctantly grabbed an egg and blankly stared at it. _How do I…?_ Cupids ate so little that preparing food was not really a skill they needed, let alone baking. Hongseok watched in horror as Jinho aggressively crushed the fragile egg in his bare hands as if he had a personally vendetta against it.   
“Okay...let me do the eggs…” Hongseok nervously laughed and saved the eggs from Jinho’s wrath. Jinho was quite impressed by Hongseok’s ability to crack them open and do the separation with one hand. _He’s rather skilled…_ Hongseok practically took command throughout the whole class, unable to leave Jinho alone with even the easiest tasks. The whispers from the girls surrounding them continued which tempted Jinho to occasionally glance over at Hongseok to see what all the fuss was about. The human had pulled his sleeves up to his elbows, showing off his well structured and firm forearms as he used the whisk to mix. _Well, I guess I can see why this is nice to look at…_ Hongseok’s concentrated gaze made its way over to Jinho who then quickly looked away, pretending to not have been gawking at him from the side.  
  
After placing the tray into the oven, Hongseok couldn’t help by burst into bright laughter upon seeing just exactly how much of a mess Jinho was in despite him not doing that much. There was cupcake mix smeared across his face and flour in his hair. He reached out and wiped some of it off of Jinho who looked like a lost puppy in his oversized apron.  
“How on Earth did you get flour in your hair?” Hongseok raised brow with much amusement. Jinho panicked and started cluelessly patting it off. _So...cute…_ What started off as Hongseok helping Jinho dust off the flour turned into him adoringly patting the cupid’s head.   
“You can rest, I’ll prepare the icing.” Hongseok was so assertive that all Jinho could do was nod and obey him. He squatted in front of the oven and hugged his knees, watching as the cupcakes started to rise and take shape. It took him a while to realise what he was doing. _Wait, why am I being so obedient to this human!?_  
  
~  
  
 __It’s…IT’S BEAUTIFUL. Wooseok was so close to the glass cabinet, he was probably going to leave an imprint of his face on it. His eyes sparkled at the sight of the extremely rare limited edition figurine of Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece in its full glory. If only he had admired it a bit longer before casting his eyes over the price tag then maybe his fantasy of holding the figurine wouldn’t have ended so early. It was stupidly expensive to the point where the common person wouldn’t understand why it cost so much but to Wooseok, it was an absolute must-have item and he knew it would be worth every dollar. He was determined to get it...even if it meant putting down his Nintendo DS and getting a damn job. Kino probably came at the right time before Wooseok considered going inside the shop, smashing the glass cabinet and stealing the figurine as a viable option.

“Hey, I found a place for us to grab a bite to eat.” Kino beamed, already dragging Wooseok away by the arm.    
  
_ I’LL BE BACK FOR YOU LUFFY! _

  
~  
 **  
** _➳ **Cupids themselves do not have arrows. They are simply not destined to love or be loved.** ➳_ **  
** **  
**~  
  
“Oh, it’s Kino.” Hongseok exclaimed, looking right past Jinho who sat across from him. At the mention of the young human, Jinho panicked and turned around out of reflex. As soon as he heard the sound of Hongseok snickering behind him, he let his guard down and turned back to face the music. To hide from his embarrassment, Jinho took a long sip from his hot milk tea and avoided eye contact with the highly satisfied Hongseok.   
“Wow, you’re quite enamoured with young Hyunggu, aren’t you…?” A smile crept across Hongseok’s face. He didn’t have time to find out more during the baking class but now that they were in a cosy cafe, it was the perfect setting to probe. “Don’t tell me you moved to this school just for him.”

Jinho shifted his eyes momentarily,  _ Well technically he’s not wrong…  _ He firmly shook his head, “No, nothing like that. I first saw him in the first week I was here.”

Hongseok sat back and crossed his arms, “Love at first sight, huh? I don’t know how I feel about pursuing someone who is in love with someone else.” 

“I’m not in love with him!” Jinho snapped back, completely missing the second part. With the silence that followed, he shrunk back into his seat, realising he was getting a bit too worked up.  _ A human telling a cupid about love...what nonsense…  _

“If you say so.” Hongseok gave Jinho a warm smile and then stood up, “I’ll be right back.”    
During the human’s absence, Jinho looked out the window whilst leaning on his elbows, deep in thought.  _ I’m not in love with him…  _ As a cupid, he knew the thing called ‘love’ was nothing but the work of The Association and a by-product of the arrows, so these feelings of adoration, infatuation and curiosity...surely, they meant something else. They were natural feelings for a cupid who watched over his subjects, right?    
  
In a blink of an eye, a brightly smiling person appeared in front of Jinho and started waving. Confused, Jinho sat back and watched the person, or rather, the non-human go through the glass and sit next to him.  _ A cupid... _   
“I’ve finally found you! You guys are rather hard to locate since you’re neither fully human nor a cupid.”    
“And you are…?” It was a new face to even Jinho who had been around for so long he practically knew most cupids. The cupid cleared his throat and saluted Jinho, “I am YOO! SEON! HO! It’s an honour to meet you. I am Sir Eunkwang’s new secretary. I’m here on Earth for a super secret…” Mid-sentence, his expression soured, “You already know why I’m here, don’t you?”    
“Yes.” Jinho bluntly replied without a speck of mercy for the poor young cupid’s feelings. It was quite obvious and not a surprise at all that Eunkwang would send someone to monitor their activity on Earth. Seonho let out a disappointed sigh but was quick to recover, “Anyway, I just wanted to say it would be an absolute pleasure for me to assist you with your mission here on Earth.”   
_ Mission on Earth...does he not know this is a punishment?  _ Jinho smiled. He himself had briefly forgotten about being a cupid who was exiled to Earth as punishment because oddly enough, here he was, on a ‘date’ with a human. “Why would you help me? Aren’t you afraid of getting into trouble?”   
Seonho leaned in closer to Jinho and whispered, “We’ll keep it a secret. Sir Eunkwang must not know about this or he’ll send me to hell.”   
“Oh, I’m sure he would do much worse if he found out.”   
Before they could continue their conversation, Seonho gasped and widened his eyes as Hongseok approached the table to take a seat. He urgently turned to Jinho and said with a stern tone, “This human is very dangerous…”   
“How so…?” Jinho was already speculating what the answer could be. With his powers being greatly restricted, it wouldn't be surprising that he wouldn't be able to tell Hongseok apart from humans if he wasn't one. Was he a non-human? A powerful being disguised as a human? Were there ulterior motives behind this ridiculous request for a date?

“He’s...dangerously handsome. My goodness, just look at that face.” Seonho got closer to excitedly examine Hongseok, “It’s a face fit for a god, such a rarity amongst the humans.”    
It was getting incredibly hard for Jinho to keep a straight face whilst talking to Hongseok because he was so tempted to beat the daylights out of Seonho who kept hovering around Hongseok and commenting on how beautiful his face was. 

“Is something on my face?” Hongseok brushed his cheek with a hand, hoping that wasn't the case.  _ Shit, it looks like I’m staring at him even though I’m looking at Seonho right now. _   
“Yeah, you do...you’ve got good looks on your face,” Seonho turned to Jinho with a smug expression, “Am I right or am I right?”

Jinho tried his best to ignore Seonho and waved his small hands in the air at Hongseok, “No, nothing.”   
_ Seonho, please leave now whilst I’m asking nicely.  _ Jinho disguised his threat with a smile and Seonho could immediately feel the overwhelming pressure coming from Jinho. He wasn’t well-known as being a fearsome cupid for no reason.    
“Yes sir!” Seonho saluted, “But please, we must speak soon. I have important things to discuss with you in regards to the arrows.” As soon as Seonho vanished into thin air, Jinho thought all his immediate problems were gone but he was quite wrong.    
  
“Oh, Kino.” Hongseok widened his eyes, looking past Jinho once again.   
“I’m not falling for that again.” Jinho scoffed at the thought of Hongseok thinking he would fall for the same trick.   
“Hyung!”  The voice paralysed Jinho on the spot, sirens going off in his head in an instant. Hongseok wasn’t joking this time.   
“What are you doing out here?” Kino enthusiastically asked Hongseok as he approached the table. Jinho desperately shared a look with Hongseok, pleading him as though he could read minds.  _ No! Please don’t say it!  _   
“I’m just showing Jinho around town. He’s new to the area.” Hongseok gestured towards Jinho who could only manage a shy nod at Kino.    
“Oh! Nice to meet you, I’m Kang Hyunggu but feel free to call me Kino.” Kino held out his hand, “I’m sure I’ve seen you on campus a couple of times.” The sight of Kino’s bright eye smile up close was enough to make Jinho’s heart skip a beat. Jinho wiped his sweaty palm on his jeans and stiffly reached out to shake Kino’s hand, “I’m...Jo Jinho.”   
Hongseok carefully watched their interaction with much interest. Despite becoming even more of a shy bumbling idiot, the love was just pouring from Jinho’s eyes as he quietly answered Kino’s questions about things like which town he came from and which class he was in.    
  
_ Not in love, my a**.  _

__  
~  
  
 **A/N:**  I was so excited about writing more for this story that I had to cut this chapter short before it got too long. Let me know what you guys think in the comments because I love reading them! Happy to answer any burning questions you may have (if any, haha). Thanks for the support. More to come soon.


	11. XI. The Meddlesome

Laying on his back, Jinho watched the clouds floating along in the clear blue skies from the rooftop. There was a lot on his mind, especially after the ‘date’ on the weekend. Hongseok had walked him home after they finished up at the cafe and then left shortly after giving him the box of cupcakes they made together. Jinho had stressed over what could potentially happen at the end of the date, fearing Hongseok would confidently go in for a kiss of some sort. Jinho had mentally prepared himself to knock Hongseok out with his powers and drag Hongseok’s body up to his apartment to deal with the next morning if that were to happen. But he had worried over nothing. Hongseok seemed more concerned about assuring Jinho that he would keep his word not to say anything to Kino. He wanted to make it clear that he didn’t have any malicious intention and just genuinely wanted to get to know Jinho better. For what reason, Jinho was still unsure. However, it was their conversation about Kino that had been bothering Jinho the most. Up until that point, he hadn’t really considered whatever he felt for Kino as ‘love’ but hearing it come from another person was oddly confronting. Then again, if it wasn’t love, what else could it be? Jinho closed his eyes, hoping to find some peace since his mind was in turmoil.  
  
“Jinho! Good afternoon!”   
The corner of Jinho’s eye twitched at the sweet familiar voice and he reluctantly opened them to meet the person standing over him, blocking out the sun. _An angel?_ Jinho abruptly sat up and slowly scuffled backwards.   
“Kino?” He rubbed his eyes with his small hand and still saw Kino standing in front of him with a blinding smile. _Am I thinking about him too much to the point that I’m imagining things?_  
“What are you doing up here on the rooftop?” Kino asked after squatting down to get closer to Jinho. The cupid gulped, feeling his eyes getting strained from staring at Kino with too much intensity. It wasn’t his imagination, it was the real deal. He also couldn’t help but admire how beautifully Kino suited the backdrop of clear light blue skies and fluffy clouds like a scene out of a picture book.   
“I usually come up here to clear my head...” Jinho smiled unnaturally, “What about you?”  
“I was looking for you and this was the only place I hadn’t checked.” Kino giggled with a soft blush coming across this cheeks all of a sudden as he crawled inwards on his knees, almost on top of Jinho who was still stupidly staring at the cute boy. Jinho froze up, unable to comprehend what was happening. His mind was starting to go blank, his palms sweaty. _What is he doing!?_  
“Oh...” Jinho really couldn’t muster up any actual words, let alone form a sentence.  
“I’m really glad I found you.” Kino moved dangerously closer until their faces met and Jinho was pinned to the ground, “To be honest, I have something I wanted to tell you…” The soft-looking boy averted his gaze and seductively bit his bottom lip. Jinho’s pupils shook erratically, stuck between the temptation to keep staring and looking away. When all seemed lost, a slight sly smirk on Kino’s face was enough to snap Jinho out of his trance. Sensing something was off, Jinho slapped Kino across the face and the boy fell to the side onto the ground. As the cupid had suspected, Kino’s image faltered and soon disappeared completely, revealing none other than Seonho.  
“Damn it, I thought I had you!” Seonho stupidly grinned, quite proud of the result of his shape-shifting. It was considered an especially hard skill for cupids to master so most preferred to refine other talents and have subpar shape-shifting skills. So it was surprising for Jinho to see Seonho, who he had deemed a rather dim-witted cupid upon their first meeting, demonstrate such a high level skill with scary accuracy. He could only imagine what powerful potential Seonho would have once he mastered replicating soft details such as personalities and mannerisms. It was now clear why he was actually chosen to be Eunkwang’s secretary. Jinho tried to remain calm and stood up to dust off the dirt on his pants, “I may be stuck in a human body but I’m not an idiot.” There was no way he would admit he was even briefly fooled by Seonho. Jinho had unfortunately witnessed something he should never have - the lustful look in Kino’s eyes. He took a deep shaky breath to slow down his racing heart. _This is bad...I have to compose myself._  
“I had to try.” Seonho bounced up onto his feet, “Sooooo? You know what I’m thinking, right? It’s a great idea, riiiight?”  
“What’s a great idea?”   
“Come on! You know what I’m talking about!” Seonho shape-shifted into Wooseok and towered over Jinho, “I can simply pretend to be one of them and then confess to the other person!” Seonho beamed with a twinkle in his eyes, “It’s the perfect plan!” Jinho looked up at Seonho, silently in awe with the transformation which was accurate down to Wooseok’s deep voice.  
  
Jinho crossed his arms and tried to lecture Seonho on why his plan was far from perfect (only after he got him to sit down because his neck was starting to hurt from looking up so much). In theory, it was the ‘perfect’ plan in most cupid cases. However, in practice, it was a flawed plan which really showed Seonho’s inexperience as a field cupid. If all cupids could just shape-shift and confess to their subject’s targets, their job would be, quite frankly, too easy to warrant having a whole sector of the Heavens dedicate the service to humans. For cases to be considered truly resolved by the Association, declarations of love had to be genuine with the intention of longevity, otherwise, the case would remain open in the system. Shape-shifting to simply confess had more often than not only lead to bigger problems.  
“I strongly advise you stop with your meddling here on Earth before you make things even more complicated than they already are. Don’t worry about us and return to Eunkwang’s side.” Jinho’s words struck through Seonho’s enthusiasm like a hammer to glass. Before closing the door behind him to go back into the building, Jinho turned back and warned Seonho, “I better not see you around here after today or else I’ll make you regret ever coming to Earth.”   
  
~  
  
Hui scanned his surroundings for signs of other people but could only see various flowers and plants in the garden beds. _This looks like a good place to nap…_ The only sounds of people talking seemed to come from the other side of the main building which was considerable far. Hui had made his way to the small secluded greenhouse after his nap was disturbed by Seonho who had had the audacity to shape-shift into Yan An and try to make a move on him. At least now, he was aware of the young cupid’s dangerous skill. He only truly sensed something was wrong once ‘Yan An’ uncharacteristically started talking too much, and to him of all people. Other than that, the physical appearance and voice of Yan An was unfortunately flawless. Seonho had excitedly proposed the plan of pretending to be either Changgu or Yan An and confessing to the other person.  Hui had seriously considered the plan because it was perfectly suited for cases which involved mutual attraction. All Yan An and Changgu needed was that extra push to confess their feelings and then their case would most likely be resolved. But he ultimately rejected it due to pride. Hui did not need help from a novice cupid. He was going to prove his skills and resolve this himself even in his measly human form.  
  
The cupid must not have closed his eyes for more than 10 minutes on a bench in the hidden garden when a loud crash woke him up from his light sleep. He sat up immediately, feeling groggy and looked around to find the source of the disturbance. It was none other than Hyojong who was on the ground amongst the remains of the smashed potted plant scattered everywhere. He had noticed Hui sleeping earlier and had been trying to continue his gardening duties quietly as to not wake Hui up. Clearly, that idea was short-lived as soon as he tripped on his own loose shoelace whilst trying to tip-toe past Hui with a potted plant in his arms. He tried, he really did.  
“Sorry for waking you up! I didn’t mean to.” Hyojong cried out whilst trying to cup some dirt and the wrecked plant in his hands. Hui stretched his arms out and let out a loud yawn.  
“It’s fine.” There was no point getting irritated at the human when he had already been interrupted once by a damn cupid anyway. Before he could get another word out, Hyojong came over to the garden bed behind the bench Hui was sitting on.  
“Can you quickly dig a small hole right there with the shovel in my pocket?” Hyojong stuck his hip out and to Hui’s surprise, there was indeed a small striped shovel in his pocket. After he dug a hole as instructed, Hyojong quickly placed the roots of the plant into the hole and patted the dirt around it with his bare hands. He placed his dirty hands on his hips and then stuck out a thumbs up at Hui who was less than impressed. He had wanted to steer clear of humans but here he was, stuck with a clingy oddball.  
“Is this your secret garden or something?” Hui asked as he returned to laying down on the bench.   
“Oh, no, I wish it was. Although it is rather secluded and not many people come by here…” Hyojong paused, looking as if he was in his own world, and then grinned, “I volunteer to help out with tending to the garden sometimes during lunch.”   
“Right, so it is your secret garden. Sorry for intruding.” Hui said with sarcasm. _Of course_ the guy who believes in spirits and ghosts was into gardening. Now that he thought about it, Hui had never seen Hyojong around other people from school other than that one guy, Hongseok. But Hui couldn’t care less. All he cared about was how much time remained until he had to go back to the much dreaded classroom, not knowing Hyojong shared a similar sentiment.   
  
Hui noticed that Hyojong seemed more concerned about the plants than tending to the scratches on his arm which were oozing out blood. The cupid closed his eyes to get whatever rest he could before time was up. He could hear the sound of Hyojong walking back and forth, occasionally whistling some random happy-go lucky tunes. Eventually, he was unable to ignore the nagging thought in his mind any longer and forced himself up, “Hey idiot, your arm is bleeding.”   
Hyojong stopped in his tracks to examine the back of his own arm and burst into a bright chuckle which lit up his face, “Oh! You’re right!”  
Hui shook his head, _How can someone be so dense?_ It was tempting to just reach out and heal the wound using his powers but he knew that wasn’t a viable option.  
“Is there a first-aid kit somewhere?” Hui asked, annoyed at himself for getting involved in the first place. It wasn't like him to be so meddling like a human.  
Hyojong listlessly looked up for the longest time before replying, “There should be one in the shed.”  
Disgruntled, Hui went to the shed to grab the first-aid kit and came back. He had checked the contents beforehand and it was practically empty with only a few band-aids which had been tampered with anyway. He used his powers to fill the kit up to the brim before walking back out. He beckoned Hyojong over who obediently sat cross-legged on the floor and held his bleeding arm out. Hui was surprised Hyojong didn’t wince whilst he swiped the wound with antiseptic. Instead, Hyojong just continued to stare at Hui without saying a word.  
“Stop staring at me or I’ll poke your eyes out.” Hui said as he carefully put a band-aid over one of the smaller scratches.   
“You’re a really nice person, Hui.” Hyojong beamed. They were definitely words the cupid didn’t think he’d ever have to hear. Hui fought back a smile of amusement. _A nice person, he says. The two things I am definitely not._ Hyojong suddenly grabbed onto Hui’s hand which was holding a fresh band-aid, “No really, you’re not a being of this world, are you?” His shift to such a serious tone caught Hui off guard. Hyojong’s strong gaze was starting to burn into Hui who quickly pulled his hand away from Hyojong’s tight grip.  
“What makes you think that?” It was a cleverly cautious question from Hui. Hyojong had already demonstrated his sharp senses once before when they encountered Seonho. Of course, it could have been a fluke but it was better to be careful.  
Hyojong giggled and relaxed his arm for Hui to hold again, “I was just thinking you’re too nice to be part of this world.” Hui saw a hint of sadness flicker in Hyojong’s eyes before the human started flailing his arms around and complaining how his arm was getting tired like a child.   
__  
“Alright, done.” Hui said after placing the final band-aid, “Don’t move your arm too much or the bandage will - Hey!” It was too late. Hyojong was already vigorously swinging his arm around as if to test it out. He then enthusiastically pulled Hui up by the wrist and lead him to a garden bed inside the greenhouse. He proudly showed off three plants in small white pots with names that were badly written on with permanent marker.  
“These are my children! I got permission to grow my own plants in the school garden as long as they weren’t too big.” Hyojong’s eyes literally sparkled as he explained the names he gave to each plant without Hui even asking. At one point, Hui found himself watching Hyojong, who was too focused on tending to his plant children to notice, and then smirked to himself. _What a weird human._  
  
~  
  
Guanlin almost spat out his water when he noticed Seonho laying down underneath the sink of the taps, hugging his own knees. _I’ve never seen this guy before, is he a new student?_ After wiping the water off his mouth with his sleeve, he squatted down and hesitantly shook Seonho’s shoulder.  
“Um, are you alright?” Guanlin quietly asked. He felt compelled to ask even though it was none of his business. Seonho stretched his legs out and as he was sitting back up, hit the back of his head against one of the sinks.  
“Yeah, I’m alright...I’m just a little upset is all. Thanks for asking, human.” Seonho pouted, sadness just pouring out of his eyes. _You look a bit more than just a little upset…_ Guanlin felt bad for the guy even though they just met, _Maybe he’s being bullied?_  
“Did you need…” Guanlin paused as he tried to recall his temporary loss of Korean, “some food?” He was meant to say ‘a teacher’.   
“No, I don’t eat human food.” Seonho let out a long sigh, not noticing how shocked Guanlin was by his statement. _Human food, what does he mean by that?_ Guanlin’s eyes widened and he let out a gasp, _Is he being fed pet food!?_  
All of a sudden, Seonho grabbed Guanlin’s shoulders and started shaking them, “I just want to help them out but they won’t listen to me!” Seonho cried, “So what if they’re like a century older than me! They’re powerless now! I just want to help them!”  
Not quite grasping the context, Gualin just slowly nodded with a confused look on his face and patted Seonho on the back. He dismissed the whole ‘century older’ thing, thinking Seonho was just exaggerating, when in reality, Seonho was being quite literal. __Uh, this is getting awkward, he looks like he’s about to burst into tears any minute now. What should I say?  
Guanlin thought about what he would want to hear if he was in this stranger’s position and then cleared his throat, “Well, maybe you can prove them wrong.”   
Seonho lifted his head up and looked at the human with watery eyes, “Y-you think so?” Going ahead with his plans would be against the rules but he knew deep down he had already accepted the potential consequences. He was determined to help his respected seniors out.   
“Yeah!” Guanlin tried his best to channel the passion of his inner sportsman, “Just go ahead and do whatever it is you planned to do and prove those haters wrong! They’ll be thanking you later!”   
Guanlin anxiously waited for Seonho’s response who looked like he was seriously digesting the advice.  
“You’re right! I can do this!” There was a new fire in Seonho’s eyes, “I CAN PROVE THEM WRONG!”  
“Yeah! That’s the spirit!” Guanlin couldn’t help but be swept up in the uplifting mood. He was just glad to have been able to help out a fellow student.  
“Thank you, human! I will remember your kind words and this fated meeting!” Seonho wrapped his arms around Guanlin for a tight squeeze and then promptly ran off in high spirits. The Taiwanese boy scratched his temple and shrugged off the strange interaction, innocently unaware of the consequences to the world around him.  
  


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**A/N:** Yeeeaaaahh, that's right, a bit of HuiDawn to celebrate TRIPLE H's comeback! Remember to check out RETRO FUTURE which is out tomorrow. The concept looks really fun and the chorus sounds super catchy so I'm looking forward to it, hehehe.  
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! A lot more to come so stay tuned. :)  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for stopping by! There's hilarious and heartbreaking chaos up ahead so I hope you can join me on this strange little journey. Do let me know your thoughts thus far and I will see you soon.


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